Seasons May Change
by If Wishes Were Blue Skies
Summary: human!ToothlessxHiccup. Seasons change, people change, everything changes. Hiccup knew this, but he wasn't sure if he could come to terms with it or not.
1. Restless

Okay, so, I'm _extremely_ nervous about posting this, you guys. I haven't even attempted a chaptered fanfic in years. In that time, I kind of came to terms with the fact that writing was never my forte, so I stopped trying to act like it was, and just wrote drabbles every once in a while. SO, that said, I'm still not happy with my writing, but I just really really wanted to try my hand at writing a full-out story with these two since I love them so much ): I do really hope some of you enjoy this though. So obviously, reviews are extremely helpful!

EMO SPEECH ASIDE, I do want to stress something. The summary said human!Toothless, but, that's not happening right away. SO JUST, nothing even all that, er, "dirty", but Toothless is stayin' a dragon for a little bit. And with that said, happy reading~!

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**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 1: "Restless"  
**...

Hiccup loved to fly.

In fact, if you asked the viking what he loved more than being up here in the sky, he'd have a hard time naming something. His whole life he'd been grounded in a place that he didn't really belong to, a place he didn't like to be. Now that he had the option to fly, fly away, he could think of nothing better. He could go as far as he wanted, for as long as he wanted. Once, he and Toothless had disappeared from Berk for three days, camping on a small island to the south. He hadn't planned it, they'd just done it. Left with no warning and came back when they'd felt like it.

He'd gotten quite the scolding from his father and girlfriend, but it had been worth it. For the first time in his life he felt truly free, and it was more than he ever could've asked for.

Another reason he loved flying so much was because of his prosthetic leg. Months after the incident, he was pretty much used to the fake limb now, but he'd grown a bit of a disliking for walking. It still ached, downright hurt sometimes, so when he had the choice between walking and flying, it was obvious what he always opted for.

But even more than any of that, flying was the one thing that was his and his dragon's. He relished the time they spent together, just the two of them. Toothless was, after all, his best friend, the one who understood him the best without having to share a single word of conversation. Just small glances, facial expressions, and they did all the talking they needed to do. Though things had gotten much better for Hiccup in the village on the social standard, he still never completely let go of the defenses he'd built up over the years of isolation. Toothless was the singular being in his life with whom he could completely relax and not have to worry about a thing. And when they flew together, it was like their own secret language, one based on movement. Toothless always seemed to know where Hiccup wanted to go, how high or how low. A lot of the time, Hiccup just let the dragon guide them, trusting that wherever he went was completely fine with him.

Today, they'd been gone for a little longer than usual. It had been early afternoon when they'd kicked off from Berk, and the sun was now beginning to set. To Hiccup though, it hadn't felt like more than an hour or two, and Toothless hadn't made any objections. They were flying quietly, smoothly, barely tearing through the wind. Hiccup reached down a little and patted Toothless' neck softly.

_You tired at all?_

The dragon turned his head slightly in acknowledgement and let out a soft cooing noise. Hiccup couldn't hear it above the wind, but he felt it. _No, I'm fine._

Hiccup smiled, closed his eyes, and leaned back to take in the wind. He really could stay up here forever, he thought. But he promised Astrid..

Reluctantly, he leaned down and spoke into the dragon's ear, "Come on, we gotta get heading home, bud."

Toothless gave another deep rumble to let him know he understood, and with a flick of Hiccup's foot on the tail switch, the dragon turned eastward and flew until Berk came back into view, just as the last light of the sun disappeared beneath the ocean.

* * *

"Toothless-stop it, come on, you know you have to-ow!"

Hiccup sharply pulled his hand away from the dragon, glaring at the creature as he nursed his finger. He was currently attempting to take Toothless' flying gear off, and the dragon was apparently trying his best to be difficult. He did this sometimes when they came back from flying. He'd whine and refuse to stay put when Hiccup would go to take his flying gear off. Hiccup knew it was because he wanted to go out flying again later, but taking the gear off meant the last of the flying for that day. Tonight however, he was being especially annoying, thrashing about, resulting in one of the hooks snapping back the wrong way and leaving a deep cut in the boy's left pointer finger.

Toothless stopped then, his ears lying flat, staring up at his rider in a sort of apology. He stepped forward, and with a soft chirp, nuzzled Hiccup's hand with his snout.

A bubble of affection rose up in Hiccup's chest and he smiled. How could he possibly be mad at him now? "It's okay, bud," he said as he patted the dragon's forehead. "But will you cooperate with me now?"

Toothless looked up at him with his large eyes, gave a rather annoyed rumble, and sat down. Hiccup let out a small chuckle and finished unbuckling the saddle. The dragon remained in his spot while Hiccup left to put it all in the shed a few feet away (newly built to accommodate his and his father's dragon riding gear).

"Alright, well I'm off to Astrid's," he stated as he made his way back toward the dragon. At the name of Hiccup's girlfriend, Toothless' eyes narrowed, which went unnoticed by his rider. "I'll see you in a few hours, alright?"

Hiccup turned to leave, but Toothless whipped his tail out in front of the boy to stop him. The boy stepped back an inch and turned to look at the dragon, eyebrows raised.

"Toothless, I don't have time for this tonight, I'm already late."

This was another thing Toothless did often, though he hadn't started until fairly recently. Whenever Hiccup left him to go somewhere without him, he became almost clingy (Hiccup hadn't known it was possible for dragons to even _be_ clingy), and always tried to keep him from leaving. When he finally did leave, the dragon would always look sad, and it was really beginning to worry him. Toothless was behaving as though Hiccup was abandoning him or something, though he knew that the dragon knew otherwise. So why was he acting so strange?

He went to step around the tail, but Toothless just wrapped it around the boy's middle and pushed him backwards and into him. Hiccup let out a small "oof" as he half-collided with the dragon, but just looked at him exasperatedly.

"Seriously Toothless, I have to go," he said in the firmest voice he could muster. Truth was, he wasn't exactly looking forward to going, but..

That was a whole other matter entirely. For now, he had to leave.

Toothless let out a low whine and nuzzled Hiccup again, this time on his shoulder. Again, Hiccup couldn't help but smile and not feel annoyed with his friend. He really would rather stay, but he _promised_.

Hiccup lowered his head, and with a much softer tone, he spoke again. "I'll be back in a little while, okay? Not too long, I promise."

A moment passed, and Hiccup felt the tail around him loosen its grip. He patted Toothless in the same spot as before and turned to leave again.

Once a few yards away, Toothless gave a loud whine. Hiccup turned back to look at his friend, a little worried now, but it couldn't be helped. He gave the dragon a wave of his hand as he disappeared from his sight from down the hill.

* * *

"You're late."

"Yeah, I know."

A pause.

"Come on, the food's getting cold."

He really hadn't expected any better, Hiccup thought as he followed Astrid into her home. He was usually late for their get-togethers, and she seemed to be getting used to it. That didn't mean she liked it, though. However, he was glad for anything over the hard punch in the shoulder that she normally gave him when he annoyed her too much.

They went into the kitchen area together and sat down at the table. Once a week, Astrid's parents went down to the pub and stayed there late. So she brought back food from the mess hall, and Hiccup would come over and they'd eat together. The last couple of weeks though, Hiccup had backed out of their weekly dinner, so he'd given her his word that he'd make it this week for sure. He wasn't certain whether or not she'd noticed that he hadn't exactly been enthusiastic when he'd made that promise.

He felt bad, he really did. It wasn't as though he didn't like spending time with her. He did, but there was something.. between them now.

He shook his head. Now wasn't the time to brood about that. He'd come to the decision that he'd try to make things better when they spent time together, not worse. So he struck up a conversation about Astrid's Nadder, Skye, and the mood lifted quite a bit. Hiccup liked when they talked, it came so easily with her. Which was still a little odd to him, considering how she used to behave toward him, but it was still nice.

They continued to talk while they ate, about goings on in the village, the latest stunt the twins had pulled during training the other day, and then..

"How how's Toothless doing?" Astrid asked as she stood from her seat to begin cleaning up. "I feel like I haven't seen him in a while."

Hiccup was about to tell her that he was fine, same old, same old. But he hesitated, bit his lip, and she noticed. "What?"

"Well, he's fine most of the time," Hiccup said, his eyebrows scrunched together. "But lately, he's been.. I dunno, acting strange."

Astrid sat back down and looked on at Hiccup, who seemed to be having a staring match with the tabletop. "Strange how?" she inquired.

Hiccup shrugged and clasped his hands together. "He's been really weird every time I leave him alone. Like.. he gets upset that I'm leaving."

The blonde viking blinked at him for a moment, before a grin broke out across her face. "Hiccup," she half laughed. "He just misses you, that's all."

He looked at her. "It's not just that though. He seems downright depressed sometimes. You should've heard him when I left him tonight, it almost hurt to leave him there."

Astrid's expression turned a little more sincere at this. She was silent for a moment, then said, "Maybe it's just a phase. I'm not.. sure if dragons go through phases, but I mean, maybe it'll pass. I think if it keeps going on for a while, then you'll need to worry."

Hiccup nodded, although not entirely convinced. He couldn't just ignore his best friend's feelings, even if he couldn't figure them out. But that wasn't something he expected her to understand.

He stayed for a while longer, helped Astrid clean up a little, talked a little more about this and that. After about an hour or so though, he began to grow restless, and told her he needed to get going. She walked him to the door, and there was an awkwardness as they stood there together. Her gaze shot back and forth between him and the doorframe, and it seemed like another hour had passed before she finally swooped in and kissed him on the cheek. They then exchanged quiet goodnights, and Hiccup began his walk back home, though with a small weight in his stomach.

She _always_ kissed him goodnight on the lips. And in one self-hating moment of realization, he knew that he had felt relieved that she hadn't tonight.

When he arrived home, he found Toothless waiting vigilantly for him in his bedroom. He grinned tiredly as the dragon hopped up and came bounding toward him in welcome.

"Okay, okay, I missed you too!" Hiccup all but gasped out, having been toppled completely over onto the floor with the dragon on top of him, nuzzling and licking his face.

Toothless eventually calmed down, but didn't free the viking beneath him. Oddly, Hiccup thought, the dragon rested his jaw in the junction between his neck and shoulder. The dragon was still, and was emitting a low purr that seemed to vibrate straight through Hiccup to the floor. A little confused now, Hiccup tried to wiggle free, but saw no opening unless Toothless got up.

Which wasn't happening.

"Uh, Toothless?" Hiccup spoke, reaching up a hand and resting it atop the dragon's front leg. "Bud?"

Abruptly, the purring stopped, and finally Toothless moved. He lifted his head quite suddenly, but didn't leave his place on top of Hiccup. He stared down at the boy, who now had room to sit up by propping himself up on his elbows. Hiccup gave him a questioning look, now _really_ confused. Toothless never just.. laid on him like this.

"Toothless?" he repeated, and again, the dragon reacted. This time however, he was slowly moving his head closer. And then, _quite_ unexpectedly, the dragon licked his master's neck.

Hiccup gave a small yelp in surprise, his eyes as wide as they could go. What the hell was that? Sure, Toothless had licked him before, but they were always playful, light and quick. This.. this had pressure, _heat_. Hiccup's entire body seemed to freeze as the warmth seemed to spread throughout him, slowly, antagonizing.

And then Toothless did it again. And again, and again, and -

Hiccup couldn't suppress the cry that escaped his throat, at which, Toothless pressed closer and resumed his purring. Again and again he lapped at the spot on the boy's neck, and Hiccup was all but writhing underneath him. His mind was spinning out of control, unable to grab hold of a single coherent thought. The unimaginable heat that was blossoming at the spot on his neck washed over him, uncontrollable, ultimately pooling in the very pit of his stomach. He pushed his hands against the dragon in a feeble attempt to free himself, but he was rendered almost powerless at this point.

"Tooth.. Toothless," Hiccup half whispered, half gasped. "St-stop-p."

But he didn't stop. Instead, he decided to bite Hiccup softly in a spot near his collarbone. And all at once, Hiccup cried out again, and the heat in his belly dropped lower, dangerously low. In that second, he realized with horrible clarity what was going on, and how his body was reacting. There was a thrumming desire inside of him, and he was scared of it. Absolutely frightened. He began to panic, thrashing underneath Toothless, beating him with his fists.

"GET _OFF_ ME!"

Hiccup's scream echoed through the room, against the walls, and the dragon violently jerked up and off of the boy. Hiccup threw himself back against the nearest wall, far away from the dragon. His breath was uneven and heavy, and he was staring at Toothless as though he had never seen him before.

Toothless' ears were flat against his head, something akin to shame shining in his giant eyes. Hiccup's mind was too far gone to see this though, still spinning, unable to calm down. Toothless took a tentative step forward, a low coo rumbling from his throat, an apology. The second he moved however, Hiccup violently flinched. Toothless froze in place, wide eyes staring imploringly at his master.

Suddenly, Hiccup got up off the ground, stumbling for a moment with his leg, but found his balance. He stood there for only a second before bolting from the room, from his house.. and from Toothless.


	2. Lost

YOU GUYYYYYS. I got so much more feedback on this then I ever thought I would! And all of it so nice too ;^; I don't know what to sayyyyy, other than thanks so much, all of you! From here on out, this is all for you awesome people :D

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**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 2: "Lost****"**

...

Hiccup ended up spending the night in his back room at the forge. He thought of going to Astrid's, but that was obviously out of the question. The forge was the best place because he would be alone. He did _not_ need anybody asking questions about why he wasn't at his own house.

He shuddered, yawned, thought he heard the faint sound of birds chirping outside. Was it morning already? He looked over to the door and saw a small bit of light spilling in from the workshop. Yes, it seemed to be.

He hadn't really slept at all. When he'd arrived, he draped a thick afghan across a spot on the floor and had sat there unmoving for the rest of the night with his arms wrapped around his knees. He'd drifted in and out a few times, but never long enough to constitute actual sleep.

Slowly, the light coming from underneath the door grew brighter, and he definitely heard people walking around outside. He knew he needed to get up. Odin forbid Gobber find him here and ask him what he was doing.

No, that was the last thing he needed.

But he didn't want to think about how stiff his leg would be. He'd never left the appendage on overnight like this, nor did he think he'd ever sat in one position for so long.

He held his breath, grabbed hold of chair leg that was next to him, and hoisted himself up. He winced as he straightened his leg out.

Not bad, though. A little sore, but nothing horrible.

He leaned against the back of the chair for a few seconds longer, then made his way out of the room, and as inconspicuously as possible, left the forge. Where he was going from here, though, he wasn't entirely sure.

He wanted to return to his house. But..

What happened last night.. it scared him. More than he could even begin to explain. He'd never thought in a million years that Toothless would..

But maybe he'd just overreacted. He'd thought about it all through the night, and while it had freaked him out, he couldn't forget that this was Toothless. His best friend. Hiccup knew from the bottom of his heart that Toothless would never do anything to hurt him. He trusted the dragon with his life, so no matter how badly frightened he'd been, he _knew_ that Toothless hadn't intended to do so. But then that raised the next question; what _had_ he intended? What on earth had he been doing? Or trying to do?

The obvious answer was in relation to how Hiccup had reacted. He'd felt..

But this is where Hiccup's thoughts forcibly took a different direction. He didn't want to think about how he had felt during the encounter. Ashamed of himself, no one in their right mind-

"Alright, calm down," he muttered to himself. "Thinking about that isn't going to help anything."

He turned in the direction of his cabin at the top of the hill, not really knowing what he was going to do when he got there. The closer her got, the more apprehensive he became, and when he finally made it to the front door, he was downright nervous. Was Toothless even still in there? Hiccup couldn't blame him if he'd left.. or was he waiting for him in his room like he always was?

Something welled up inside Hiccup's chest at the thought. Whether it was regret, fear, or sadness, he wasn't sure. He didn't even know how he _should_ feel right now. He just knew that he couldn't stand outside his house forever. So, he braced himself, and went inside.

The house was silent. He knew his Dad had gone for the day, probably down at the docks, but there wasn't any movement from above either. And when he climbed the stairs and hesitantly opened the door of his room, it was empty too.

Hiccup let out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding. He walked forward a few feet until he was in the middle of the room and looked around. He was alone.

He was expecting this, honestly. Why should Toothless have stayed? Hiccup wasn't worried, he was probably in the grotto or something. He just felt a little.. put down.

Walking to the window, Hiccup wondered if he should go looking for him. He was a little nervous about it, but it seemed like the best thing to do. Besides, he really doubted he'd be able to get anything of merit done while this was all heavy on his mind.

So he left the cabin, and headed into the woods. There was no real path down to the grotto, but he'd gone there so many times that it was all but imprinted into his mind. It didn't take him long at all to get there.

As he passed through the break in the rock formation and the clearing came into full view though, Toothless was nowhere to be seen. Hiccup's shoulders slumped a bit, but he decided to look a little more thoroughly. He walked across the grotto and behind the small patch of trees, but still nothing. He turned, looked around again.

No Toothless. Again, he was alone.

Hiccup bit his lip. Still nothing to worry about, he assured himself. There were a thousand other places on Berk that Toothless could be. He just had to go look some more. Toothless couldn't fly on his own, so he was definitely somewhere nearby, he couldn't have gone far.

Though as he made his way back through the forest, Hiccup couldn't help but thinking that Toothless had never disappeared on him like this before. He was always either at the house, or with Hiccup. Never had he ever had to go looking for the dragon.

Back in town, everyone was out and about. He considered asking around if anyone had seen him, but doing that would mean that he needed help finding him, and if he needed help, then there was something to worry about. No, Toothless had to be somewhere around, Hiccup was sure of it. He'd find him, and he'd just laugh at himself for getting so worked up.

* * *

Noon came and went.

Hiccup still hadn't found Toothless.

He was sitting at the high pier way above the docks, staring down at everyone working below, though not really watching. He let his legs dangle over the edge, but despite the height, he felt relaxed. Or, so his body did. His mind was far, far from it.

He was definitely worried now. More than worried. He was starting to get a little hysterical. Again he'd considered asking for help, but now he was just scared he might blow up on anybody who came into contact with him. He'd freak out, and they'd tell him to calm down, that wherever Toothless was, he'd come back, nothing to get deathly worried about.

But that was wrong. So, so wrong. Toothless didn't just.. go off on his own for hours and hours. He didn't leave Hiccup, not ever.

"I was always the one who left him.." he said, his voice hoarse from lack of use all day.

Something painful tore at Hiccup's heart, and he wrapped his arms around himself. Guilt washed over him like a wave. It was his fault Toothless was gone. The dragon must not want to see him, didn't want to be found.

The rationality inside Hiccup knew these thoughts were crazy, but he couldn't help letting them eat at him. This had to be his fault. No way was it a coincidence that the incident the night before wasn't connected to Toothless' disappearance.

Again Hiccup felt something in his chest constrict as he let his mind relive the previous night.

He still couldn't figure out exactly what had happened. He didn't know what Toothless had been doing, trying to do, whether or not the dragon had actually.. (Hiccup wet his lips) _wanted_ Hiccup to feel the way he had.

That possibility alone frightened the viking most of all. It was unthinkable, something of the utmost shame. Even in the privacy of his own mind, Hiccup felt embarrassed. If Toothless' intentions had really been.. sexual.. Gods, he didn't even know what to think. It was completely and utterly insane. Beyond that, even. But there was no denying the fact that the dragon had brought forth a desire within the boy that he'd never experienced with another living soul.

Hiccup's mind drew a blank after this. Whether he just couldn't think of it any longer, or if it was just too much for him, he didn't know. But it didn't matter. Not really. Not compared to finding his best friend and putting his mind at ease. What happened last night wasn't important, he just needed Toothless back. He needed to know that he was alright.

With a small sigh, Hiccup stood up and made his way down the wooden landing. He didn't take notice of the black clouds rolling in the distance.

* * *

_Knock, knock, knock_.

Astrid turned over in her bed, her eyebrows scrunching together. Was someone seriously knocking at the door? She laid still for a moment, and when she heard nothing, she relaxed again. No, just the storm outsi-

_Knock, knock, knock_.

She shot up, staring in the direction of the hallway, her expression masking that of exhausted annoyance. She looked out her window where there was nothing but thunder, rain, and wind. Who in the name of Thor was outside in this? And in the middle of the night?

Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock-

"Alright, alright!" she exclaimed to the room. She hopped out of bed and went out into the hallway, where the knocking was going nonstop now. She hurried to the door in fear that her parents would wake up. They didn't take very kindly to being woken up.

The knocking still hadn't stopped when she reached the entryway of her house. _Whoever this is._. she thought darkly. But when she wrenched the door open, the sight before her caused her to immediately lose any and all anger.

It was Hiccup.

And not only that, he was soaked from the rain, and the look on his face. Astrid couldn't remember ever seeing him looking so lost.

"Astrid," he croaked. "I'm sorry, I-I know it's late, I just-"

As if remembering how to move, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him inside. She ran to a nearby cabinet and brought out a rather large pile of blankets, and draped them over him one by one. The last one she threw overtop his head and began drying off his hair. All the while, Hiccup remained motionless and silent.

When she seemed satisfied, she took a step back and just looked at him. Hiccup could tell she was trying not to look upset.

"You're an idiot," she whispered. "What were you doing out there? How.. how _long_ have you been out there?"

His gaze fell to the floor. "I.. I dunno. I kind of lost track of time."

"Well what were you doi-"

"Toothless is gone."

She gaped at him. There was a long pause, then, ".. What?"

Hiccup's figure seemed to slump even further. He grabbed one of the blankets closer to his body. "He's gone. I've been looking since this morning. He's not anywhere."

Again there was silence. Astrid didn't even know what to say. Mostly because what Hiccup was saying was unbelievable. Even she knew how inseparable the two of them were. How could Toothless be missing?

"How.. Hiccup, he can't just be gone, he must be somewhe-"

"He's not," Hiccup interjected. "Everywhere, I've looked everywhere, all day, he just doesn't want me to find him, he doesn't..." he trailed off, scared his throat might constrict with the next words he'd had on his tongue.

Astrid was extremely concerned now. She'd never seen Hiccup like this before, and she wasn't sure what to do. She wanted to help, but she didn't know how.

"Hiccup," she said softly. She chanced putting a hand on his arm, and felt a little better when he didn't back away. "Wherever he is, there's nothing we can do right now. We wouldn't be able to see him in this storm if he was standing right in front of us. For now.. you need to sleep, okay?"

Hiccup didn't say anything, but hung his head a little lower.

"Do you.. want me to walk you up to your house?" she offered. He stiffened at her words.

"No," he said quickly. "I don't want to be there without him."

His words struck a chord in her heart, and she wasn't sure how they made her feel. The statement seemed overdramatic for him, sounded strange coming from a person who was usually happy and sarcastic. Astrid hesitated for a moment, lost for words.

"Okay," she forced out. "Come on, I'll get you a pair of my Dad's nightclothes. They'll probably be a tent on you, but it's better than what you're in now."

From thereon out, Hiccup didn't say another word. He followed her around like he was lost, letting her give him clothes, more blankets, and situate him on the floor of her room. The only other thing he uttered from his mouth was a small "night" before he disappeared underneath the blanket.

Astrid laid in her bed, far from tired now. She chanced glances down at Hiccup every couple of minutes, but he didn't move. She was worried.

Hiccup stared out of the window.

Lightning flashed, and he was reminded of the day he'd shot Toothless out of the sky.


	3. Days Go By

So I've really been shooting for weekly chapter updates, and so far that's working out xD WHOOP. Thanks again for the _awesome_ feedback guys, seriously. Hope you enjoy this chapter C:

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**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 3: "Days Go By****"**

...

That morning, Astrid convinced Hiccup to ask everyone for help. She didn't know why he was so against doing so, but in the end he gave in. She was a little relieved that he did too. Somehow she thought that she wasn't going to be able to handle him like this on her own.

The first person they went to was Stoick. The first thing he tried to do was scold Hiccup for not being home at all the previous day, but Astrid interjected. Hiccup was just about as down on himself as anyone could be, she thought, and the last thing he needed was his father coming down on him too.

When Hiccup told him what had happened, what he had been doing all the previous day, Stoick's demenor visibly softened. He asked Hiccup the same things Astrid had. How? Why would Toothless just disappear like this? To which Hiccup had no answers.

Hiccup could tell that his father was a little uncomfortable with all of this. Stoick did his best to comfort his son, but he'd never been good with affection. But Hiccup also knew that his father understood the gravity of the situation, and just how distraught his son was.

"I'll do whatever I can to help," the viking stated firmly. He placed a heavy hand on Hiccup's shoulder. The boy looked up and they shared brief smiles.

Stoick told them that he would alert everyone that he could, and encouraged them to do the same. The more people, the better. More eyes covering more space. And that was what he and Astrid spent a good few hours doing. Telling everybody they came across. Toothless is missing, would you let them know if you see him?

All the while Hiccup tried his very hardest to not seem so broken. Tried to feel optimistic that now, with so many people on the lookout, surely his friend would turn up.

But he knew. He _knew_ that this helped nothing. Wherever Toothless was, he was somewhere that wasn't meant to be found. The dragon had gone of his own free will, and it would be his choice to come back if he did.

So he wasn't surprised when night fell and no one had seen anything of the Night Fury.

"It doesn't make any sense," Stoick growled, having just told Hiccup the unsurprising news. Astrid had gone home just a few minutes previous after Hiccup reassured her at least fifteen times that he would be alright tonight.

"He didn't even come into the village for food. He can't get fish from the ocean on his own, right? I thought for sure.."

Hiccup just sat on his stool in the front area of his house, watching his Father pace back and forth. Affection for the larger man welled up inside of him. To see his Dad acting like this toward Toothless' disappearance really reminded him of just how much he cared, even though he didn't show it all that often.

"Dad, it's okay," he said in an attempt to stop his father's pacing.

Stoick looked over at him, eyebrows raised.

"Alright, well it's obviously not _okay_, but.. it will be." And as he said this, he realized how much he really believed it. "Toothless will be back."

The older man looked as though he wanted to say otherwise, but he kept silent.

Later, when he was alone in his room, Hiccup idly walked over to his window and leaned against the frame. He felt slightly better now that some sense had come to him. The initial panic he'd suffered through yesterday was gone, slowly, but surely replaced with an odd sense of calm. Toothless' abrupt disappearance had triggered some panic button inside him, but now that some time had passed, his mind was no longer clouded over with distress. He stopped blaming himself, stopped thinking that Toothless left him and was never coming back.

No. Toothless would be back. Hiccup didn't know why he was gone, and he did feel disquiet in this, but he truly believed that he would return. He believed this because Toothless was his best friend, and would never leave him for good. Toothless needed him, and he needed the dragon just as much. Everything they were as individuals was mirrored in one another. There was no Hiccup if there was no Toothless.

And Hiccup knew that it was the same for Toothless. That he felt the same way. He was still worried, yes, but Hiccup trusted this knowledge with his life.

* * *

The days wore on, and still nothing had changed. The sun came up, the sun went down, over and over, and Toothless was still gone.

Hiccup had slowly started returning to normal as time passed, and by the end of the seventh day, he'd even left behind his group of friends with a smile on his face. Astrid, who knew him best out of the group, knew that he wasn't one-hundred-percent back to his normal self, but he at least had stopped wandering around looking like the living dead.

But she wasn't a fool, either. She saw the way Hiccup's eyes would stare off at nothing in particular, some deep emotion glazing over them, saw how his shoulders would slump when he thought no one was looking. He was putting on a smiling face for them, and she knew it.

So she was torn as the rest of the group went walking down the hill, and Hiccup made his way toward his house. She wanted to talk to him. They hadn't had a proper moment alone since he'd turned up at her house in the middle of the night. She stared after Hiccup, and after another moment's hesitation, ran after him.

"Hiccup!"

He stopped, turned, looked surprised to see her running up the hill. "Astrid?"

She came to a halt in front of him, and suddenly felt extremely foolish. She didn't even know what to say. She stood there for a moment, opening her mouth to try and force something out, but nothing came. Hiccup raised an eyebrow at her.

Then, without warning, she took a step forward, threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight. He made an odd, surprised noise. "A-Astrid?"

"I'm not an idiot, you know" she said. "I know you're not okay. You can show me how you're really feeling right now."

She felt his body relax at her words. She pressed him closer. "I know how much you miss him, how worried you are."

There was a pause, a single second of time before Hiccup felt something break inside of him. He all but crumbled into her embrace, returning it with fervor, and not caring as he felt everything he'd been feeling for the past week just let go. His body shook, and he couldn't hold back the sob that pushed its way out of his throat.

Astrid was slightly alarmed at this, but just gripped him tighter. He was mostly quiet save for the choking sounds and sniffling. She didn't say anything else, but just waited patiently for his trembling to cease, and even when it finally did, he didn't move. She wasn't sure how long they'd stood there, silently holding one another as the sun disappeared behind the ocean.

After what seemed like hours, Hiccup pulled away, immediately raising his hands to wipe his face. "Thanks, Astrid," he said in a small voice. "I.. I'm sure Toothless will be back, but it's just been hard.. I feel like I'm missing some part of myself."

Astrid bit her lip, but just ruffled his hair playfully. This earned her a small laugh from him, and she smiled. "He'll be back," she agreed. "But until then, you better come to me if you need anything, you got that?"

He smiled. Nodded. "I will."

There was another pause, before she leaned in and kissed him. Hiccup froze, but before he could even think of returning it, she ended it. She said a small 'goodnight' and took off down the hill. Hiccup stood there for a few seconds, watching her go, then turned and went inside.

* * *

The next morning, he left to meet Astrid outside of her house, where they would continue on down to the dragon houses, where the rest of the group would be waiting for them. Astrid had laced her fingers through his as they began their trek down. His hand felt cold.

"Took you two long enough!" shouted Tuffnut as they were within earshot.

"Yeah, we've been waiting for like, an hour already," agreed his sister, the both of them wearing mirrored expressions of annoyance. Astrid retorted some smart remark that Hiccup didn't really hear. His mind was elsewhere. He was staring on at all of them, the twins, Fishlegs, Snoutlout, all beside their dragons, feeding them breakfast.

He took a deep breath, cleared his mind, noticed that his hand was suddenly empty. He turned his gaze to his left, where he saw Astrid running off toward where she kept Skye. She'd probably told him she'd be right back or something, but he didn't remember. Once she returned, they spent a little while just hanging out while the dragons eate their fill of fish. Hiccup didn't say much, but this wasn't out of the ordinary. Even before everything, Hiccup mostly sat in their circle listening to everyone, just happy to be apart of it.

"So can we get flying already? My legs are getting stiff," Snotlout complained loudly. Everyone agreed and started getting up. Astrid offered Hiccup her hand to help him with his leg. It was still odd having her as his aid instead of Toothless, even after more than a week. But he took it, grateful for her help nonetheless. She didn't let go even once he was up, and only tightened her grip when he tried to walk ahead of her. He didn't object.

Hiccup stood idly by as everyone mounted their dragons and began taking off, one by one, until it was just him and Astrid left. Normally this was where he went off on his own to walk around the village, maybe spend some time at the forge working on more designs, but he noticed that Astrid was sitting atop her Nadder with an arm held out.

"Come on," she said simply. "Come out with us, it'll do you good."

He hesitated. He did miss flying. But.. flying without Toothless just seemed.. abnormal. He stood there, unmoving, trying to come to a decision.

He wanted to go. Even though flying on another dragon unnerved him a bit, he longed to be up in the sky again.

"Okay," he said, reaching out his hand and grabbing hold of Astrid's. He hoisted himself onto the saddle. She waited until he was in place with a firm hold around her waist, then gave the commend for the dragon to kick off from the ground.

It felt wonderful. The wind in his face, the weightlessness, the smell of the ocean. After being grounded for a week, Hiccup didn't think he had ever appreciated flying more. While flying with Astrid and her Nadder felt just as strange as he expected it to, it was just a mere discomfort compared to the overall experience. And Hiccup was only reminded of how good of a flyer Astrid was as she performed a particularly risky dive, but smoothly pulling back up just before they made contact with the water. The laughter that burst forward from within Hiccup was instantaneous as his stomach flipped in time with the dive. He heard Astrid laugh as well, and just like that, he felt in higher spirits than he had in what felt like way too long.

They all flew for a long time, it seemed. They touched down a little before noon for lunch, but went right back out afterwards. They wove in and around the docks near the island, above stone structures, raced each other for the trill of it. For the first time in days, Hiccup sincerely laughed, felt happy, and allowed his mind to be taken over by all of it. For just a few hours, he let himself forget.

* * *

Hiccup returned home just as night fell, but he decided to try and go to sleep early. The last bits of the carefree feeling he'd had all day was beginning to wear off, and he really didn't feel like being awake when reality finally came back to him. It wasn't hard, though. The moment his head hit the pillow, his mind went pleasantly blank.

The last thing he saw before his eyes fell shut was the sky out of his window, shining that indefinable color between when the sun went down and the moon came up.

* * *

"Hiccup! _Hiccup!_"

It felt like the entire earth was shaking. Surely he had just been yanked from his slumber into an earthquake.

Until his mind began to register what was going on. Someone was shouting his name. Large hands on either of his shoulders, shaking him. A gruff, bearded face came swimming into focus in front of his own. He blinked forcefully a couple of times, and finally he recognized his father.

"Dad?" he croaked, still in a bit of a stupor. "What's going on?" There were a million other questions buzzing in his mind. What time was it? Was the house on fire? Could he lower his voice just a little bit?

"We found him."


	4. Transformation

Still keeping up with my weekly schedule, YAY. So here's the next chapter guyyyys, and I'm sorry for leaving you with a cliffhanger last time! Hopefully the fluff in this chapter makes up for it C: and thanks again, all of you, for the _wonderful _reviews 3

...

**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 4: "Transformation****"**

...

Hiccup rubbed at one eye tiredly. "Who?" he asked through a yawn. "Who found wha-"

He stopped. Didn't breathe. His eyes flew wide open and he stared at his father, who nodded silently at his son's expression. There was a second that passed where Hiccup couldn't remember how to move. Or maybe he was scared to. Scared that if he moved, he'd wake up again. That it was a dream. A second was all he could stand though and he all but lept out of his bed and began to sloppily attach his metal leg.

"Where? When? Is he okay? Where is he now? Who found him? What-"

As the words spilled from his mouth, he went to get up, and almost tripped in his excitement. He quickly caught himself on the bed and pushed himself back up without a second thought. He was already down the stairs before he felt a hand on his shoulder, halting him just before the front door.

"Dad, I need to go, come on, we-"

"Hiccup."

He froze at his father's tone. It was serious, almost.. ominous. His mind reeled. Something was wrong, he was about to tell him something wasn't right, that Toothless wasn't..

Hiccup swallowed the slowly building panic that was rising in his chest.

There was a moment where Stoick looked like he was unsure of what to say. Then, in the calmest tone he could manage, he said, "Before we go, you should know that Toothless, he.. well he's not.."

Stoick noticed the stricken look on his son's face. "He's alright!" he added hastily. "He's breathing, and he looks unharmed, he's just... extremely weak. Not moving very much."

Hiccup stood there, unsure of whether he felt better or worse. It didn't matter, though. "I need to see him," he said firmly. Stoick nodded, and they left the house together.

As they walked down the hill, his father told him that they had taken the dragon into one of the back rooms behind the mess hall. It was closest to shore, where they'd found the dragon, and they hadn't wanted to move him too far without knowing what was wrong. He told Hiccup that it had been Gobber who'd spotted Toothless lying on the shore, as though washed up from the ocean. The image that appeared in Hiccup's mind at this made him a little sick. Stoick kept talking, said that it had taken him, Gobber, and two other men to hoist the dragon onto a cart and wheel him up to the village

The journey down seemed to take hours, days, weeks. Hiccup's heart pounded harder within his chest as the towering building came closer and closer. His father was still talking to him, but he was only half paying attention at this point.

".. came around a few times, opening his eyes, moving a little, but that's about it."

Hiccup ran up the stone steps as fast as he could and all but threw himself against the large double doors. He stood blankly in the entryway, realizing that he didn't know where to go. Trepidation crept up within him, for he felt that every second standing still was time wasted, that he needed to get to Toothless, and just standing here like an idiot wasn't going -

"Come on, this way," his father said, coming up behind him, and led him forward, one of his hands on Hiccup's back, gently pushing him along. They walked to the other end of the hall, and down a corridor where, just a few feet away, a door was ajar, light creeping out softly into the dark. Again Hiccup ran ahead of his father, and in through the half open door.

Hiccup stopped. Stared. One second, two seconds. He remembered to breathe.

There he was. Toothless was lying in a mass of blankets, some sort of makeshift nest, just a few feet away from him. Behind him, the fireplace was alive with dancing flames, casting shadows all across the room. The scene in front of him seemed so simple.. Toothless lying there as though asleep, as though nothing had happened. Hiccup didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Slowly, he took steps toward the still dragon, and dropped to his knees before him. Part of him was still petrified that he would wake at any moment, at home in his bed, Toothless still gone. He reached out a trembling hand though, and placed it on a spot above the dragon's eye. Heat radiated through his hand and into him. He took in the sounds of Toothless' breathing, his heat, the tiniest movement behind his eyelid.

He was really here, Hiccup thought, and something like relief but thousands of times stronger washed over him, almost knocking him clear over. He almost cried. Wanted to, but he didn't allow any tears to fall while he knew his father was nearby. Though he couldn't prevent them from welling up around his eyes, he tried his best to blink them back.

Stoick came into the room a few moments later, but didn't move toward his son. Hiccup felt him lingering in the doorway, and was unsure of what to say to him. Well, he knew what he wanted to say, he just didn't want to sound as though he was rushing him out.

So instead, he turned and said, "Thank you, Dad." He couldn't have felt any more sincere.

Stoick smiled. "I know how much he means to you. Everyone does."

Hiccup nodded, noting to himself that he'd have to thank Gobber and the others in the morning. But for now.. "You don't have to stay here, Dad. You can, er, head back up to the house if you want."

".. You're staying here, then?"

Again Hiccup nodded, and Stoick seemed a little unsure of what to do next. "Well, there's more blankets in the closet at the end of the corridor," he told him. "Do you want me to.."

"No, I'll get them. Thanks, though."

The larger man hesitated for a moment, then walked forward a few steps and ruffled his son's hair. "Goodnight then, son."

"Night, Dad," Hiccup said back, the smile on his face mirroring his father's.

And with that, Stoick was gone. Hiccup turned his attention back to Toothless, and breathed out a long sigh. He moved his hand to a spot behind the dragon's head and began to caress his neck.

He did that for a while. Minutes passed, but how many, he did not know. He muttered Toothless' name a few times, but he didn't stir. Hiccup tried not to worry too much, or think about how on earth he'd ended up on shore out of nowhere. Toothless was here now, he was alive, and that was all that mattered.

For now.

Hiccup's hand stop moving and he just looked at the dragon for a moment before getting up. He walked over to the doorway, looked out, saw nothing but darkness in each direction. Then, quietly, he shut the door, and walked back over to Toothless.

As gently as he could, Hiccup silently crawled into the pile of blankets and situated himself next to the warm body of his friend. He found a comfortable spot within the contours of the blankets, and closed his eyes.

He was almost asleep when suddenly, he felt something warm and heavy fall across his body. His eyes snapped open, looked up, and was miraculously met with the oh so familiar green of those eyes. He felt his heart skip, and this time he really couldn't prevent the tear that fell down his cheek.

Toothless was looking at him, his eyes half-lidded, but still looking at him. He knew he was there. He had moved his front leg up and around the boy's body, bringing him closer.

Hiccup smiled as wide as he could. Slowly, he brought one of his hands up and let it rest on the dragon's jaw. He wanted to say a million things, meaningful things, but all that his mind could come up with was:

"Hey, bud."

Toothless purred and nuzzled his snout against the top of the boy' head. Hiccup laughed. He truly thought he might die from how happy he felt. It was washing over him in waves, nonstop, until he was intoxicated by it. Drenched in some euphoria that he didn't quite understand, but didn't really care to at the moment. Because right now, Toothless was here. Right now..

Not really knowing what he was doing, nor thinking, Hiccup shifted closer and planted a kiss a few inches away from where his hand was, on the side of the dragon's mouth. The warm scales felt odd against his lips, but nice, and he lingered there for a few seconds before backing away again. He stared at Toothless, and it wasn't until a moment or two had passed did he realize what he had just done. He felt embarrassed, but only a little.

Toothless actually looked surprised, his eyes fully open for the first time, but quickly recovered, and gave a small, light lick to Hiccup's cheek. It tickled, and Hiccup laughed, his heart all but soaring. He buried himself in Toothless' neck, his forehead pressed well up against the large expanse of scales.

It didn't take long at all for him to fall asleep. He lost himself in the rhythm of Toothless' breathing, and the very fact that he was there with him. It would be the first peaceful sleep he'd had since before Toothless had left him eight days ago.

* * *

For the second time, Hiccup was abruptly, and quite unpleasantly, woken up. Though this was much worse than the previous night. There was shouting on all sides of him, and he was practically thrown a few inches across the room.

Wincing, he sat up as quickly as he could, looking wildly around. He saw Gobber and his dad rushing from the room, struggling with something. Then, above their shouting, there was a blood-curdling screech. The sound seemed as though it were too loud for where they were, and it bounced violently off the walls, hurting Hiccup's ears.

He looked around the room again, and it was then that he noticed that Toothless was nowhere to be found.

Hiccup stood up as quickly as he could and went running out into the hallway.

"Dad! _Dad!_"

Ahead of him, Stoick stopped and turned around. Hiccup saw Gobber disappear into another room down the corridor, something large thrashing wildly around. It only took Hiccup a second to realize that those awful noises were coming from _whatever that was._ He stood, dumbfounded in front of his father, staring wildly after the thing.

"What.." he gasped. "_is_ that?" He looked back up at Stoick. "What's going on? And where's Toothless?"

Stoick had an odd expression on his face. He looked extremely worked up, almost angry, but confused at the same time. "Hiccup, I'm.. I'm not entirely sure what.. maybe you should look for yourse-"

Just then, whatever was in the room emitted an entirely different sound. Though just as loud, this was what could only be described as a cry. It was desperate, as though asking for help, and it cut right through Hiccup like a knife. He recognized that sound. His eyes went even wider, his gaze fixed upon his father.

"That's Toothless," he breathed. In an instant he was running toward the door. His father yelled after him, but he kept going.

Toothless.. he needed to get to Toothless. That was the only thought his mind would comprehend. When he at last turned the corner into the room, Hiccup was unsure of what he would see, but what met his gaze was too unreal for words.

Gobber was giving it his all trying to restrain.. something, and whatever it was, it was putting up one hell of a fight. The room was barely lit at all, so Hiccup couldn't make out more than a wildly thrashing, dark blur. The most alarming thing about it was its size. Just as tall as Gobber, and apparently just as strong.

Hiccup's arrival into the room went unnoticed for only a few seconds before the - whatever it was - happened to look up and spot him. Hiccup froze, and oddly enough, so did the creature. Now that it was still, he could make out two rather large eyes that almost seemed to glow in the dim light. Hiccup stared timidly into them for a moment before a wave of realization crashed into him. He grabbed hold of the doorframe to keep from tipping over.

Those eyes.. large, dark wings that Hiccup could now see protruding from its back, a set of elongated ears.. Hiccup shook his head. There was no way. This creature had a human body, arms, legs, hands, and feet. But still, those dark scales covered its entire body, head to toe.

"Toothless."

As soon as the name fell from Hiccup's lips, the creature smiled that oh so familiar smile. Hiccup gripped the doorframe tighter.

Then, in one swift movement, Toothless broke free of Gobber's hold, and leapt straight for Hiccup. He jumped back into the hallway at the sudden proximity, but clawed hands clamped down onto his shoulders to prevent him from retreating. And it was then that Hiccup really noticed the look on his face.

He looked sad.

"STOP!" Hiccup shouted to both Gobber and his father, who both had begun running toward them. He turned his gaze upon Stoick. "I need to.. just, hold on for a minute."

As he turned his head back to meet Toothless' eyes, it felt as though everything around him had come to a standstill. The half-dragon stared back at his rider and emitted a low cry as if to say, 'Why don't you recognize me?'

But he did. Hiccup was still having an immensely hard time trying to keep his mind from spinning out of control. Desperate to find an anchor, he lifted his hands to the familiar, yet alien face. Green eyes widened a little at the touch, but he didn't move.

Hiccup didn't really know what he was doing, his hands seeming to move on their own accord. They made their way up into a mop of messy, black hair, and from there to those familiar ears. Down against his jaw line, chin, and finally, brushing softly against Toothless' nose, to which he pushed lightly into the boy's hand. Hiccup smiled in spite of himself.

He didn't know how, and he could hardly believe that this wasn't some insane dream, but it was really Toothless standing before him. There was no doubt about it. He knew it, _felt_ it even. And he..

Was naked.

Hiccup blushed, and did his best not to freak out in front of Gobber and his dad. As calmly as he could, he took Toothless by the hand and lead him back in the direction of the room they'd spent the night in. Hiccup walked past his father, determined not to make eye contact with the man, because he could only imagine the look he was giving him. Once inside the room, Hiccup left Toothless by the door and went to grab the blankets that had been piled on the floor. One by one, he draped them over the dragon. One over his shoulders, one over his head like a hood, another to try and cover his wings.

As he did this, his father stormed into the room.

"Hiccup! What're you doing? That thing, it-"

"This _thing_," he spat. "Is Toothless. And I'm taking him up to the house."

Stoick faltered a bit at his son's tone, but his face quickly changed to express anger. "You can't take that.. him outside! What will the villagers think?"

"What do you think the blankets are for?" he retorted, raising his voice. "And what else is there to do? Incase you've forgotten, he lives there too."

From underneath the blankets came a muffled chirp, as if in agreement. Hiccup turned away from his father, and double checked to make sure the blankets weren't going to slip off. It looked absolutely ridiculous, though. All you could see of Toothless were his legs, and the end of his tail. Other than that, he was a giant white blob. It would do the job though, and hopefully there weren't too many people out yet.

Hiccup took hold of the dragon's arm from underneath the layers of cloth, and began to guide him forward. Stoick didn't move out of their way, and Hiccup wondered for a moment whether he would, but after a brief staring contest, Stoick hung his head.

"I.. I'm trusting you with this, Hiccup. Do what you think is best."

Hiccup didn't answer for a brief moment, then settled with a small, "Thanks, Dad."

He continued his way out into the hallway and into the main hall. Luckily the place was still empty. Once outside, he saw that the sun had only come up maybe half an hour ago, which again, was lucky. They only came across two other people on their way up the hill, who stopped and stared, but Hiccup just gave them an uneasy smile and kept walking. Every so often Toothless would make some kind of noise, to which Hiccup would softly pat him on the back.

When they finally reached the house, Hiccup felt extremely relieved. "Well, that could've gone a lot worse."

Toothless made another noise, and Hiccup led him up the steps and inside the front door. He didn't remove the blankets until they were safely inside his room. He left one blanket on over his shoulders for obvious reasons, and went looking for extra clothing. Finally, he found an old, worn pair of trousers, as well as a spare tunic with the sleeves torn off. Hiccup handed them to the dragon, who eyed the clothing with interest.

"Put these on, alright? Er, like me." He gestured to the outfit he was currently wearing. Toothless _looked_ like he understood, but Hiccup wasn't entirely sure. Nonetheless, he turned on the spot, determined not to see any more of Toothless than he already had.

He listened to the rustling behind him and stared intently at the wall. There was a small 'thud', and Hiccup could only guess that Toothless had stumbled in his attempts at putting on pants. Once or twice he was tempted to turn around and help, but..

Again his cheeks flushed pink.

Then, suddenly, there was a weight on his shoulders. Hiccup jumped nearly a foot in the air and yelped in alarm as strong arms, dark as night, wrapped around him from behind. Toothless cooed softly and rested his chin in the crook of the boy's neck. Hiccup felt his entire body grow incredibly warm, and whether it was from Toothless' body heat, or the blood rushing to his face, he did not know. He squirmed, turning himself completely around within the dragon's hold in an attempt to break free, but just ended up with his face buried in the now clothed chest.

Well, Hiccup thought, at least he wasn't naked anymore.


	5. A Breath Between Us

FFFFFF, sorry for the slightly late chapter here, guys. I had this chapter done and ready to go for today, I just ended up having a lot to do today. BUT, here it is, and I hope you all enjoy ;D

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**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 5: "A Breath Between Us"  
**...

**.**

_"We meet at the lights,_

_I stare for a while, and the world around us disappears."_

**Sarah McLachlan, "I Love You" ~**

**.**

* * *

Hiccup didn't move. After the initial surprise of Toothless' embrace faded away, he felt himself relax. Which seemed a little odd to him, really. By all means, shouldn't he feel a little awkward being held like this? By this Toothless that was so unfamiliar to him, by.. anyone, for that matter. He didn't even think he'd be comfortable if Astrid embraced him like this.

But there he stood, feeling more and more at ease as the seconds ticked by. Tentatively, he brought his hands up against Toothless' chest, and let his cheek rest in the spot between them. The dragon began his familiar purring, and it felt nice against his skin. He smiled.

In the back of his mind, he still knew this was kind of weird. If anyone were to see them like this, well.. Hiccup knew exactly what it looked like. But he didn't care. There was a happiness welling within him that he didn't quite understand, like he could float away. He just assumed it was because he was so happy that Toothless was back, even in this form. He'd missed him so much.. how warm he was. Why hadn't he noticed how warm he was before now?

It was then that Hiccup's mind drifted briefly to the night before. Lying next to the dragon in his original form, the fire crackling behind them, so warm, so warm. He remembered seeing those eyes again for the first time in what had seemed like an eternity, and being so relieved, so overtaken with joy that he'd..

Hiccup's entire body tensed at the memory. He'd kissed Toothless. _Kissed_ him. But was it even anything to make a big deal about? It had been quick, nothing.. involved.

Hiccup blushed, suddenly feeling a little uneasy. No.. deep down, he knew that there had been something behind that kiss, as simple or innocent as it may have seemed.

The night before he'd discovered Toothless missing, what had happened between them in this very room.. that was the same thing. It could have been explained off, that there had been nothing but innocent intentions. But Hiccup felt no reason to deny any longer that he had never felt that way with another person. When he got right down to it, Toothless had been the first for many things with him. His first friend, the first to accept him the way he was, the first, and still only soul that Hiccup could be totally relaxed around.

So what made something like.. this any different?

_It's not right._

The boy's hands clenched into fists, his heart beginning to thump louder behind his ribcage. He wondered briefly if Toothless could feel it..

He lifted his head from the dragon's chest and tentatively met Toothless' gaze, which seemed to have already been upon him. Something washed over Hiccup in the moment their eyes met, something that he couldn't exactly label. He suddenly felt.. _daring._ He wasn't nervous, or scared.

He wanted to kiss him.

All reasoning aside, all rationality thrown out of the window, Hiccup began to lean his head closer to Toothless'. The dragon made no objections, except that his expression turned curious, as though confused by the boy's advancements. Then, it seemed to dawn on him, and he ever so slightly tilted his head to the side. They were close now, Hiccup could feel the hot breath on his cheeks, the agonizing anticipation bubbling over inside of him.

_SLAM._

"Hiccup!"

The two jumped about a foot simultaneously. Distance between them was renewed, but Toothless kept his arms wrapped loosely around the boy's waist. They stared at each other for a single bewildering moment before Hiccup pulled out of the awkward hold (much to his displeasure), and walked over to his bedroom door.

"Astrid?" he called down the stairs. There was no need to though, he'd known it was her as soon as the front door had slammed open. There was a certain way she always did it, and Hiccup knew it well.

"Are you in your room?" she answered back, and Hiccup soon heard footsteps making their way toward the stairs. He panicked a little.

"No, don't!" he shouted quickly. "Don't.. come up here!"

There was a pause, and he saw her come into view at the very bottom step. She raised an eyebrow. "Why? Your dad told me they found Toothless, is he-"

"I-I.. yeah! I'll bring him down, just.. just stay downstairs!"

Again she gave him an extremely bewildered look, but just nodded and stayed put.

With a sigh, Hiccup turned back to his room and found Toothless in the exact spot he'd left him in, though now wearing a less-than-happy expression on his face. Hiccup barely took notice of this however, as he was too busy having a mental war with himself. Should he show Astrid? Well he had to, he'd told her he was going to bring him down. But how would she react? Did it matter? No, it didn't, it hadn't with his father, had it?

Still feeling anxious, Hiccup walked over to Toothless, grabbed hold of his hand, and guided him toward the door. Toothless followed obediently, and made no noise whatsoever as they descended the stairs.

Astrid had moved next to the fireplace, and Hiccup all but winced at the look on her face as Toothless came into view. Once at the bottom of the stairs, Astrid walked over to meet them, and her jaw nearly hit the floor as she stared at the humanoid dragon.

A couple of times she had moved her mouth as if to say something, but closed it again, lost for words. Hiccup wished she would just say something, wanting desperately for this to be over with. There was a split second where her gaze floated downward, and Hiccup remembered with fleeting embarrassment that Toothless' hand was still clasped within his own. He let go of it. She'd noticed, but didn't say anything.

Finally, she said the only thing that would come to her. "What _happened?_"

"I.. don't know."

"He was like this when you found him?"

"No, he uh.." Hiccup hesitated, a little unsure of how to explain it. "He was normal when I saw him last night, but overnight he must've.. I mean, when I woke up this morning, he was like this."

Her gaze didn't wander from Toothless the whole time Hiccup spoke. Toothless himself looked uneasy, and kept looking back and forth between the two teenagers.

"Can he talk?" she then asked.

Hiccup blinked. He hadn't even thought of that. "I, uh.. I don't know, I didn't even think to.." he trailed off, feeling stupid. He turned to Toothless and asked, "_Can_ you talk?"

Toothless looked at him, and there was a moment of silence before the dragon furrowed his brows together in determination. He opened his mouth, and a few warbled noises came forth, but nothing identifiable. Hiccup smiled at him, "It's okay bud, it's fine if you can't-"

But then the dragon made a different noise, something that sounded a little clearer. Syllables? "Hhhhhhhiiiiiiihhhh."

Hiccup and Astrid stared at Toothless with utmost curiosity.

"Hhhhiiiii..kkaaaah. Hhiiiccuhhhp!"

The boy's eyes went as wide as saucers. He couldn't believe it. It had been elongated, a little awkward, but Toothless had definitely just said his name. An incredulous smile broke out across his face, and Toothless grinned as well, obviously happy with himself.

"Wow," Astrid spoke, and as Hiccup turned to look at her, he saw she too was smiling. She lifted a hand and pushed her bangs aside. Let out a small chuckle. "This is completely unbelievable."

Hiccup only nodded, feeling that anything he said at this point would just be redundant.

"Are you going to show everyone else?"

His shoulders slumped. The thought had crossed his mind a few times, but in all honesty, he just didn't want to think about it right now. "I'm not sure yet," he said truthfully. "I can't exactly keep him cooped up in here forever, but.. who knows, maybe he'll change back and I won't need to worry about it. I guess I'll just wait a while and see what happens."

Astrid nodded in agreement, and turned to look at Toothless again. "Why don't you ask him?"

"What?"

"Ask him how this happened. He can kind of talk now, he should be able to tell you how he changed, right?"

Again, Hiccup felt foolish for not thinking of this before. However, the moment he turned to look at him, Toothless wore a very serious expression and shook his head.

"You.. can't say?"

Toothless nodded.

Hiccup wasn't sure what this meant. He didn't know if Toothless meant that he literally just couldn't form the words to explain, or what. Maybe even the dragon didn't know what had happened. Whatever it was though, Hiccup acknowledged the look of sincerity on Toothless' face and wasn't about to press him for details.

Astrid shrugged her shoulders, looking as though she didn't know what else to say. Finally she tore her gaze away from Toothless and looked at Hiccup. "Well.. is there anything I can do?"

Hiccup was about to tell her no before a thought occurred to him. "Could you just.. not tell the others? And keep them from poking around? If they hear that Toothless is back, tell them he's sick or something and I'm taking care of him."

"Okay," she said, her voice understanding. She put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed it, offering him a smile as she did so. He returned it, truly grateful for her cooperation.

For a moment, he was nervous that she would kiss him, and was relieved when she didn't before turning and leaving the house. And with that, the two were left alone again.

Hiccup felt something touch his hand, and realized that Toothless had taken it into his own. He turned to look up at him and was met with a rather sad look on the dragon's face.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he asked, a little concerned.

Toothless replied with a small chirp, and pointedly looked toward the door for a few seconds, then back at Hiccup. The boy just looked even more confused at this.

"Hhhhhhrrrrrrrrr."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. Toothless opened his mouth as if to try again, but just closed it and shook his head. He then pulled Hiccup a step closer by his hand, pecked him on the cheek, and pulled back again, giving the boy that endearing gum-less smile.

Hiccup's faced exploded with color and he jumped back a little in surprise. His hand touched the spot where Toothless' lips had touched his skin. A few seconds passed, and he couldn't help the shy smile that played across his face.

* * *

The two had spent the rest of the day inside the house, Hiccup trying to provoke speech from the dragon. They'd made a little progress, as Toothless was now able to form words, even though they were still a bit hard to understand. They'd spent quite a long time inside though, and it was evident that Toothless was beginning to go a little stir crazy.

"Hhhiiiiccup," Toothless growled, thumping his tail on the floor in an agitated manner. Hiccup had crossed the room to get another piece of charcoal to write with since his had worn down. He stopped and looked back at the dragon, who's eyes were lidded in a glare.

"Okay, okay," the boy said. He thought for a moment, wondering what they could do. "Do you wanna go down to the grotto? That's the only place we can go without someone seeing you."

Toothless' face lit up at this, and he nodded vigorously. Hiccup laughed. "Alright, let's go."

He walked the few steps in between them, and offered Toothless his hand. He took it, hoisted himself up, but didn't let go even after he was standing perfectly fine on his own. He didn't mind.

* * *

The walk through the woods was a quiet one, giving Hiccup some time to think.

It was barely sundown, but the events of the day felt like they'd happened ages ago. Finding Toothless in this new form, bringing him home, all of it. It was all so insane. He was still getting used to Toothless the way he was now. He wasn't uncomfortable around him or anything, but he was half expecting to wake up and find it was all some crazy dream.

And Toothless' change wasn't the only thing that was just a little too unreal for the boy to fully comprehend. The way he was feeling.. the _pull_ he felt toward his friend. It scared him a little. For a lot of reasons. It was wrong on so many levels, and he knew that. He knew that it wasn't natural how he felt, not to mention he had a girlfriend.

He scoffed. That hardly even seemed worth brining up. They had been falling apart since the very beginning. Before that, even. During the weeks spent befriending Toothless and helping him to fly again, Hiccup had all but lost interest in everything else, including Astrid. The dragon had been his first priority, and soon, his obsession. So when Astrid had begun her advancements on him, he really wasn't all that happy. If anything, he was conflicted. She was considered the most attractive girl his age, sought after by many of the other guys. So why wasn't he as excited as he thought he'd be?

Still, he'd tried to make it work. He was a little happy, as having her made him feel normal for once. Like everyone else. After a while though, he realized that it just wasn't who he was. He'd spent his entire life being different, and while not being a total outcast anymore was nice, he just wasn't cut out for normal. He needed to do things against the grain to feel as though he was doing things right.

But leave it to him to take 'being different' to a whole new level, and finding himself with more-than-friendly feelings toward a dragon.

_A dragon,_ his mind echoed. He winced. It sounded so bad, but..

Toothless was so much more than just a dragon. His best friend, his _everything._ He was, in every sense of the word, his home. He loved his father, but in the time that Toothless had been gone, Hiccup realized one thing. That house was not his home without him. He had come to understand that wherever the dragon was, that's where he was happiest. Safest. Content. And without him, well, Hiccup was lost.

Spurred on by his thoughts, Hiccup abruptly asked, "Where did you go? When you were gone all that time."

They had just come into view of the path that led down into the clearing. Toothless came to a halt, staring down at the ground. Hiccup stopped as well, felt Toothless' hand tighten around his own.

"Iiis hhhard to explaaaain," he answered quietly. "Not shhure if.." He trailed off, looking a little troubled. Then, he looked up at Hiccup and gestured to himself. "Wasss for thiiis."

Hiccup stared at him for a moment, trying to understand. "You mean you left so you could.. change into this?"

Toothless nodded.

Hiccup didn't know what to say. Somehow, this information made him feel.. well, just odd. He didn't know how to explain it. ".. why?"

Toothless shook his head, now wearing an apologetic expression on his face.

_Oh yeah,_ Hiccup thought. Toothless couldn't say why he'd transformed. But at least now Hiccup had a little more information.

Still, though..

Hiccup's gaze dropped to the ground. He squeezed Toothless' hand gently.

"I missed you."

As the words left his mouth, he felt everything from the last week come washing over him. How lonely he'd been, how worried, how misplaced he'd felt in his own village. And last night, how completely and utterly _happy_ he'd been, like everything was right in the world once more, because Toothless was back. With him.

He felt his body begin to tremble. Was angry with himself for it. He really was weak, wasn't he?

A warmth enveloped him then, and it took him a second to realize that Toothless had brought his arms up around his shoulders. Being held like this, Hiccup almost immediately felt calm again. He threw his arms around the dragon, taking in fistfuls of his shirt, burying his face into his chest.

"I missed you so much," he whispered. He felt a hand on top of his head, slowly petting his hair in long strokes.

"Mmmssorreeeee."

Hiccup smiled. "It's alright," he said, muffled against the shirt. "M'just being stupid."

Toothless hugged him tighter. "Nnnnot stuuupid."

He didn't argue. Knew it was useless. Toothless would never let him insult himself. His smile grew, and he felt okay again. It was true that everything was right in the world because everything was as it should be. Except..

"Toothless?"

He felt eyes on him as Toothless shifted to look down at him, and Hiccup lifted his head to meet his gaze. Slowly, tentatively, he moved his arm so that he could bring his hand to the dragon's face. He brushed his fingertips ever so softly against the dark skin, and ghosted back into his hair, resting it in the crook of his neck.

"Kiss me."

Toothless' eyes widened a little, and looked a little unsure. Then, as if coming to a decision, he leaned closer and did as Hiccup requested.

Soft lips brushed against his own, softer than he thought they'd be. He reveled in how it felt, how barely-there the contact was, but how suddenly breathless he was. They stayed like that for a few seconds before moving apart and staring at each other, as wide-eyed as owls. Hiccup meant to say something, anything, but no sound came from his throat. So instead, he pulled Toothless back into him, kissing him deeper this time.

Hiccup had never known a kiss could be so involved, so absolutely wonderful. With Astrid it was always quick, over before he could register what had happened. Hardly any emotion in it at all. This however was an entirely new experience that he hadn't even known existed. Somehow, this kiss made him feel as though he were falling into oblivion, weightless, without a care in the world.

Suddenly, all his thoughts of why he shouldn't be feeling this way, why it was wrong, were gone. He didn't care about them. This felt too good, too perfect. How could he ever have hesitated before? There was nothing else he needed, absolutely nothing.

When they pulled apart, they rested their foreheads together. Hiccup didn't open his eyes. Didn't want to. He was coming down from some kind of high, and keeping his eyes shut kept him there longer.

He didn't know how long they stood there like that. It could've been hours and he wouldn't have known any better. Wouldn't have cared. Surely he could stay like this forever.

At long last, he slowly opened his eyes, only to be met with a pair of large, green ones. He chuckled and pulled away. Gestured in the direction of the grotto. "You wanna go down there now?"

Toothless nodded, an amused smile playing on his features. Hiccup reached out, and the dragon slipped his hand through his. Fingers intertwined, the two continued their hike down.

* * *

They sat together on the edge of the bank, in a spot just before the ground became soggy. Hiccup was leaned over, his head resting on Toothless' shoulder. Their hands came together just between them, dark on light. Hiccup liked the dramatic contrast in their skin colors. Thought it looked pretty.

"Toothless?" he spoke into the silence. The dragon made a low rumble of recognition.

There was a pause in which Hiccup wondered what to say. There were many things he wanted to say, but it was hard to choose. In the end he settled with, "Thank you."

".. for whhhat?"

Again he hesitated with his answer. He felt that anything he said wouldn't be enough, wouldn't even begin to explain how he really felt.

"For being here," he said after a moment. "With me. That's all."

Silence passed between them, just a few seconds, before Toothless raised a hand underneath the boy's chin, and gestured for him to look up. Hiccup complied, saw his expression that clearly read, _'You're kidding, right?'_. Then Toothless leaned down, and brought their mouths together in their third kiss.

Hiccup felt himself falling again, and there was nothing he could do to resist. His hand tightened considerably around the dragon's, an attempt to keep himself grounded.

Toothless ended the kiss rather quickly, and stared at Hiccup, his expression serious. He opened his mouth to speak, and when he did, it was slow, as he was trying hard to get the words out properly.

"There isss.. nowhere else.. I woouuld rrrrather be.. thannn withhh you."

Hiccup felt his throat clench, almost painfully, at these words.

"Me too," he said, his voice slightly course. He cleared his throat and touched Toothless' face. "Me too. Toothless.. I.."

Something stopped him. The words caught in his throat, stuck there. He wanted to say them, but.. they wouldn't come. Didn't know why. They just wouldn't. Toothless stared at him as though looking for something.

Unsure of what else to do, Hiccup leaned in, and kissed Toothless on the side of the mouth. Just as he had the first night he had returned.

He hoped he understood.


	6. Test

HELO I AM HERE AGAIN. Barely on time to make my weekly deadline though, sorry guuuuyyys D: At the last minute I remembered that there was a bug chunk of this chapter that I wanted to rewrite, so that took a bit longer than expected. BUT I only hope that that means a better outcome for all of you. As always, thanks so much for the AAAAWESOME feedback C:

...

**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 6: "Test****"**

...

When Hiccup awoke, it was almost immediate to him that he wasn't in his bedroom. Or his house, even. No, this place was much different.

Slowly, his shook the remainder of sleep from his mind, and he realized where he was, as well as remembering how he'd gotten there.

He was down in the grotto, and Toothless was lying next to him, arm wrapped around his middle, and still asleep. Hiccup smiled at the memory of the previous night, the kisses they'd shared. It hadn't seemed like so much when it had happened, but suddenly he knew.. things were going to change. Even Toothless' transformation wasn't anything compared to the two of them being together. This was definitely big, and while the truth of it pained him a little, Hiccup knew that no one could know. He.. _they_ had to be careful. If anyone found out..

Well, he didn't even want to think about that.

It had to be kept a secret.

The weight of this realization bared down on him a bit, and he frowned. He looked at his companion's sleeping face, reached out and pushed back a stray piece of hair. He allowed his hand to linger there, barely touching his skin. A moment passed, and Toothless shifted. Hiccup drew his hand back instinctively and watched as the dragon began to wake up.

He moved around a little bit more, stretched, then sleepily opened his eyes. Right away they fell on Hiccup, and the dragon smiled.

This alone made Hiccup feel better. "Good morning," he greeted, his tone quiet.

"G'mmmorning," the dragon answered back. Hiccup smiled, scooted closer, gently kissed him.

For a little while, Hiccup considered not moving. He didn't particularly want to. He was perfectly content with the thought of lying there in Toothless' arms for the rest of the day, but he knew that probably wasn't the best idea. So, rather reluctantly, he pulled from the dragon's warmth, and sat up. Toothless watched him as he walked the few steps to the pond, and splashed water on his face.

When he was done, he turned back to Toothless, still drying off his face with his shirt sleeve. "We should probably go back. I'm sure my dad threw a fit when I didn't come back home last night."

Toothless chirped, and Hiccup saw him roll his eyes. He stood up though, ready to leave. The viking walked back over to him, took his hand in his own, and they left the clearing together.

* * *

The sun was completely up by the time the two made their way out of the forest. They walked in the direction of Hiccup's cabin, and had almost arrived when they saw a figure coming up the hill toward them. Hiccup quickly shook his hand from Toothless' grasp. As the figure drew nearer, Hiccup recognized the blond hair and slim physique.

"Astrid!" he called, suddenly feeling a little nervous. "Hey, er.. what brings you here so early?"

She came to a halt in front of them, and Hiccup felt something off about her. He wasn't sure what, but.. it made him feel uneasy.

"Your dad came to my house looking for you last night, so I thought I'd come check on you," she finally said. Then she tacked on, "And I'm your girlfriend. Do I really need a reason to come see you?"

"Of course not!" Hiccup replied a little too quickly. "I just.. wondered was all." He gave her the best smile he could muster, but he suddenly felt sick. Lying to her. iBetraying/i her. It hadn't even dawned on him.. she hardly crossed his mind at all last night.

What was wrong with him? This wasn't who he was, and he felt disgusted with himself. It also didn't help that he knew how terrible of a liar he was, and that she probably saw right through the smile he was putting on for her. If she did though, she didn't show it.

"So how's Toothless been doing?"

Hiccup snapped back to reality. "Oh! Uh.. good, he's doing good," he stammered out. "He's talking a lot better, so that's.. that's something." He chanced a glance over at Toothless as he spoke, and was a little alarmed at the half-lidded glare he was giving Astrid. He inwardly cringed, prayed that she would leave soon. This was just bad. Bad, bad, bad.

There was a rather long, awkward silence that followed, and all the while Hiccup willed her to leave. He didn't feel good at all, and why wouldn't she _go?_

"Alright, well.." she spoke into the silence. "I guess I'm gonna go meet up with the others to go flying. I just.. wanted to see you."

Shockingly, her tone was a little sad. Softer than usual. The guilt within Hiccup threatened to overtake him, but he forced it down. He didn't know what to say to her, and as though she saw this, she stepped forward and slipped both of her hands into his. And she kissed him, his stomach turning rather unpleasantly the moment their lips touched.

He thought for a moment of returning the kiss, to make her happy, to keep any suspicion at bay. But he banished the thought just as quickly as it had come to him, knowing that it would only be cowardly of him, shameful. Not to mention that it would hurt Toothless, and if he had to hurt someone because of all of this, it was more than obvious who that was going to have to be.

He just couldn't bring himself to do it yet.

So he stood still, waiting as calmly as he could for her to let him go. When she did, she looked at him for a second, her eyes seeming to be searching for something, then she just smiled.

"Well, see you then."

And before Hiccup could reply, she turned, and took off down the hill.

The second she was out of sight, he turned to Toothless, who was already looking at him with a rather lost expression on his face.

"Toothless," he said, not knowing what else to say. He felt worse and worse with each passing second. He bit his lip, then abruptly took Toothless by the hand, and led him behind the house, away from the view of the rest of the village.

Hiccup took both of his hands in his, gently squeezed them as he looked determinedly into his friend's eyes. "I want you to know," he said in the strongest voice he could muster. "I don't feel for her the way I do.. for you. She and I.. we never really.."

He shut his eyes tight, frustrated with himself. He knew he sounded so foolish. But he needed to get this out. He took a breath, opened his eyes again.

"How I used to feel about her was.. childish. I know that now. I just need to find the courage to tell her that myself. But, you.. Toothless, _you're_ the one I want to be with." He blushed. "D-do you understa-"

But he was cut off as Toothless abruptly wrapped his arms around the boy's middle and hugged him close. And before Hiccup had any time to react, Toothless pulled away just a tiny bit, so a small space was between them. He then placed his hand, open-palmed, on the boy's chest, just above his heart.

"Thisss is mine?"

Hiccup stared blankly at him for a moment, temporarily taken aback by the affection that swept through him at the gesture. Then he smiled, and brought his own hand atop Toothless'.

"This is yours."

* * *

After they'd finally gone into the house, Toothless announced that he was hungry. This caused Hiccup to realize that he too was hungry, so he left the house with a knapsack in hand, on his way to the mess hall to bring back food for the two of them. It had taken him a little while to get Toothless to stay behind, but in the end he promised to not leave the house.

He heard shouting above him, and he looked up just in time to see the twins flying not too far away on their Zippleback, Fishlegs close behind. Where Snotlout and Astrid were, Hiccup didn't know. Nor was he really interested.

He shook his head, kept walking.

At the foot of the steps to the mess hall, he began his trek slowly upward. About halfway up though, someone called his name from the top. He looked up to see his father coming down toward him.

"I was just on my way to the house to look for you," he stated, coming to a stop one step above him. "Where were you last night?"

Oddly enough, Hiccup thought, Stoick's voice wasn't as angry as it normally would have been. Still though, he picked a lie from the top of his head. "Toothless and I went, uh.. fishing. We just ended up camping out. Sorry I didn't tell you."

He thought it sounded a bit lame, but his father didn't seem to really care.

"Hiccup," he said sternly. "The Elder wants to see you and.. your dragon."

Hiccup blinked. "What for?"

"I told her about.. well, what happened."

Now this made Hiccup a little uneasy. This wasn't a bad thing, but taking Toothless to see her.. what all would she be able to figure out?

He nodded at his father. "Alright. I'll take him there after we eat."

Stoick nodded back. "See that you do."

And with that, they parted in opposite directions.

* * *

Figuring out a path to the Elder's home without having to cut through the middle of the village was tougher than Hiccup thought it would be.

Toothless was currently swallowing down the last of his fish as Hiccup sat next to him, staring intently at his quickly-drawn map. He was trying to see how they could possible get there without running into anyone, but so far all he'd accomplished was thoroughly chewing through the end of his charcoal stick. After another few minutes, he realized there was only one way to go about this.

"Looks like we're going to have to cover you up again, bud," he said, a little exasperated. He knew, of course, that there would be no walking mass of blankets like yesterday, but.. he would find something in the house. A cloak or something. He got up and began digging through cupboards and shelves until he found a couple pieces of cloth.

"Could you stand up?" he asked as he walked back over to Toothless with the fabric in his hands. Toothless did as requested, looking at Hiccup with a slightly confused expression. Hiccup lifted up the largest piece of cloth, thinking it would probably cover the dragon fairly well.

"Can you fold your wings in really right?" Again, Toothless obliged, and Hiccup threw the cloth almost all the way overtop of him. "Good, keep them like that as long as you can."

Toothless crooned, his large eyes following Hiccup and his movements. The boy reached up and situated the cloth overtop Toothless' head. He grabbed one of the much smaller pieces of cloth, and wrapped it loosely around the dragon's neck, tying it just tight enough to keep the cloth in place, and forming a makeshift hood at the same time. He took a step back and looked at his work.

"It looks a little off, but it'll do the job," he said. He stepped forward and pulled the hood down a little lower.

Toothless shifted. "Whhhy all this?"

Hiccup looked at him. "The cloak, you mean?"

He nodded.

"Well I told you about the Elder wanting to see us, but.. I don't want anyone else to see you on our way over there."

Toothless didn't look any less confused at this. Hiccup suddenly felt a little guilty. "It's complicated. People won't recognize you, and they've definitely been known to react rather, er.. unpleasantly to things they don't understand. I just don't want to cause any unnecessary alarm."

Toothless was silent for a moment, before asking, "Is thiss forrrm.. not good? Ugly?" His tone wasn't sad, or hurt, but simply curious.

However, the question caught Hiccup a little off guard. He fumbled with his answer. "I, er - no! It's not, i-it's.. fine, it's good. Very good." His face burned with color, and he was more than a little embarrassed. He grabbed onto Toothless' hand.

"Come on, let's just go," he said quickly, and led the way out the front door. Behind him, he could practically hear the smile on the dragon's face.

* * *

The Elder lived in a small, old-looking cabin a little ways away from the village. The Elders of the past lived there as well, and it was kept separate from the village to keep it safe from the chaos and danger of dragon attacks. To get there however, one had to walk across the high piers, and the only way to those was right through town.

Thankfully though, their trek there wasn't difficult, or even eventful. Everybody was out and about, but they all seemed to completely overlook Hiccup and the cloaked stranger following behind him. The only thing he really had to worry about was someone accidentally bumping into Toothless and knocking the cloak off. But there was a very low chance of that.

Once they made it to the pier, it was much less crowded. It was a short walk across the wooden planks, and had made it to the other side within only a few minutes. Her cabin was in view now, only a few yards away, but instead of feeling relieved that they'd made it there, Hiccup suddenly began to feel nervous.

He really didn't know why. The Elder was known for being a very kind old woman, and being the chief's son, he'd spent quite a fair amount of time around her. But he knew she was _extremely_ smart. Nothing got past her. Then, of course, there was the little fact that she was their direct line to the Gods, their communicator. She gave the village predictions and warnings, all of which would always come true.

So, he didn't think anything particularly _bad_ would come of this, but he was just uneasy. A little nervous about what might happen.

Hiccup hesitated for a second once in front of the cabin door, took a breath, and knocked three times. There was a small pause, then a voice from inside called, "Come in, come in!"

Tentatively, he grabbed hold of the door handle, and opened the door. He took a step over the doorframe and into the cabin. He'd only actually been inside here a handful of times when he was much younger, accompanying his father. And it didn't look much different from how he remembered. The small windows let in limited light, but the room was fairly well lit due to the fire burning in the fireplace. And overtop it, a pot sat, smoke emanating from tiny holes in the lid. The whole place smelled sweet, and Hiccup guessed it was coming from that pot.

Hiccup remained standing in the doorway until she finally showed herself, walking in from a room to the right. She smiled and beckoned him forward. "Ah, Hiccup, I'm glad you're here," she greeted him, her voice soft and gritty with age. "Take a seat anywhere you like."

He stumbled forward to allow Toothless in behind him, then closed the door. Still a little anxious, Hiccup wondered if he should take the cloth off of him. He bit his lip. Deciding to wait a little longer, he led the dragon over to a seat close to the fireplace. They sat down next to each other, and watched as the tiny woman took the pot off of the fire, and poured steaming hot liquid into three cups.

"Tea?" she said, gesturing to cups on the table next to them. Hiccup took one with a small thank you. He nudged Toothless to do the same. Slowly, the dragon reached out and took the cup, sniffed at it, but didn't drink any.

The Elder took a long sip from her own cup, sat it back down, and looked at the two of them sitting across from her.

"I apologize for calling here on such short notice," she said. "But your father was quite insistent that I see your dragon. Toothless, am I correct?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

She smiled. "But yes, Stoick seemed rather alarmed, but I really think he gets too worked up most of the time."

Hiccup gave a small chuckle, feeling a little more at ease knowing this. Her gaze turned to Toothless then, and she scooted her seat a little closer to him.

"Your father says neither of you have no idea how this transformation took place?" she inquired. Toothless stared back at her, eyes wide and curious. She was silent and motionless for a while, just looking at him, until finally she spoke again. "Could you take the cloak off, dear?"

Hiccup all but lurched forward to untie the cloth around his neck, knowing Toothless still wasn't all that good with his fingers. He pushed the cloth back and it fell around the dragon's waist on the seat.

The Elder scooted even closer, now just a few inches away from Toothless. Her gaze was searching, wildly questioning. In fact, Hiccup thought this was the first time he'd ever seen her with such an expression. Hardly anything surprised the old woman, so to see her looking so astounded was definitely odd.

"Can you speak?"

"Yess," Toothless answered with a curt nod.

"Do _you_ know how this happened?"

He hesitated. "I.. yess."

She looked at him, as though waiting for him to continue. When he didn't, she asked, "Can you tell us, then?"

Unsurprisingly to Hiccup, Toothless shook his head. "I cannnnot."

The Elder didn't look confused or put off by this, but simply more curious. Slowly, the reached up a hand to Toothless, who looked a little uneasy, but didn't back away. She lightly touched the dragon's forehead with the tips of her fingers, and Hiccup thought he saw a glowing light come from the spot where contact was made, but when he blinked, it was gone. The Elder shut her eyes, barely audible humming emanating from her throat.

No one moved or spoke for what seemed like a long time. She would shift her hand by a few centimeters every once in a while, but nothing more. Toothless remained absolutely still the entire time, and Hiccup briefly wondered if maybe she wasn't keeping him from moving.

At long last, her eyes opened, and her expression was calm, understanding. "As I thought," she said, breaking the silence. "This is a matter of the Gods."

Hiccup nearly choked. "What!"

She turned to him. "Yes. This transformation is the Gods' doing."

Hiccup forgot how to speak. As if all of this wasn't insane enough, this was just.. beyond his level of comprehension. How was he even supposed to react to that? What did it even _mean?_ How could..

"It's alright, Hiccup," she said then. He must've looked just as distraught as he felt, because she was looking at him with a bemused smile. She then turned back to Toothless, who had been looking worriedly at the boy, but turned back to her when she reached out to him again. This time however, her hand went lower, and she rested it flat against his chest. Again her eyes closed and she hummed.

It wasn't nearly as long as before when she opened her eyes, but she now had a rather surprised look on her face. She blinked, then looked at Hiccup, her eyes still wide. He froze, suddenly feeling nervous again.

Then, she smiled. And not just any, normal smile, Hiccup noted. It was a very happy, very _knowing_ smile. This didn't make him feel any better.

"This dragon loves you very, _very_ much."

Hiccup felt his heart jump into his throat at her words. He sat up, tried to say something, but no words would come out. His head spun, and he didn't know whether to feel more frightened or ashamed, or..

He felt a hand on his shoulder. The Elder's. She was still smiling at him. "Hiccup," she said firmly. "It's al_right._"

He looked at her, feeling lost. This was exactly what he'd been scared of coming here. He'd just promised himself that morning that no one could know about this, but lo and behold, just hours later, and someone knew.

There was a soft croon from his right, and he looked over to see Toothless looking at him, his expression concerned.

Her words rang through his head again.

_He loves you.. Toothless loves me. _ Loves _me._

His mind finally began to calm down a little. There was an anchor in those words, in that knowledge. Somehow, with how crazy it all was, that was what made sense to him.

He took a long breath and let it out, willing all of the negativity out with it. A smile appeared on his face, and her reached over and took Toothless' hand within his own, quietly tangling their fingers together. Toothless smiled.

"Okay you two," the Elder then said, and the both of them jumped a little. They turned to her, now sitting back in her chair looking at them a little more seriously. "This is a test. A test meant for you, Hiccup."

His eyes widened, thoroughly confused now. ".. Me? What's a test?"

"Toothless' transformation," she answered. "I too can't say the exact details-"

"Wait! So you know why he's like this?"

She nodded. "I do, and this is another willing of the Gods. It's rather difficult to explain, but.. it's not that the information can't be known to others, it just can't be spoken of by those who do know. Do you understand?"

Hiccup's brow furrowed, unsure of whether this made more sense or not. This was all so weird. "So basically.. neither of you can say why this happened? Are the Gods preventing you?"

"Yes," she said. "It's under the contract, made by the Gods, that Toothless, nor I in this case, are unable to tell anyone."

"A contract?" Hiccup repeated, his tone laced with disbelief. "This is insane! I'm just supposed to believe that _Toothless_ made a contract with the _Gods?_" Even as he said it, it sounded crazier.

The Elder looked at him for a long moment, and said simply, "What else is there for you to do? I'm telling you what I know, and that is that your dragon went of his own will, and made struck a deal with them, and it's all to do with you."

He was completely speechless. He closed his eyes, clutching tighter to Toothless' hand as he did so. He didn't even know how to feel. Confused, of course, lost. A little frustrated because now he felt like he was under some sort of pressure, but to do what, he didn't even know. How long was this going to go on before he knew everything? It had only been two days, but already he felt like so much was going on, and now suddenly it all involved him?

"Hiiiiccup."

He looked up, and again he was met with Toothless' worried gaze. Hiccup didn't know what to say or do. What was he supposed to? So he just forced a smile, only half of him really in it. All he really wanted to do at this point was talk it over with Toothless, but he obviously couldn't do that right then and there.

The Elder spoke again. "Now, I'm not going to pretend that this is going to be easy. You know very well how the people of this village can be, and you have centuries of tradition riding against you."

Hiccup bit his lip, his gaze drifting down. "However," she spoke. He looked back up. "That didn't stop you before, did it?"

Rather hesitantly, Hiccup shook his head.

"So if there's anyone who can get through something like.. this," she gestured to their hands. "It's you." She got out of her chair and walked the few steps over to them.

"You two have my blessing, and my best wishes of luck. Because Odin knows you're going to need a lot of it."


	7. Burn the Bridge

Hey everyone! Hope you all had a nice week, and that you enjoy this chapter C: I do have some bad news, though. I have a friend of mine coming in from out of town and spending the week at my house, so I won't have an update next Sunday D: BUT, I promise I'll be back on schedule the Sunday after that for sure. I'm sorry though, I feel really bad making all of you lovely people waiting for a whole two weeks. But here's to hoping this chapter can tide you all over until then c:

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**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 7: "Burn the Bridge"  
**...

**.**

_"Nothing's ever gonna bring us down, 'cause nothing can keep me from loving you._

_It don't matter what'll come to be,_

_Our love is all we need to make it though."_

**~ Darren Criss, "Not Alone" ~**

**.**

**

* * *

**

The walk back was a silent one. Hiccup's mind was buzzing with so many thoughts and questions that speaking was the last thing on his mind. Leaving the Elder's hadn't calmed him down much at all.

And now, sitting on his bed, he realized that it was only noon, but already he felt like his head might burst from everything that had happened.

From the doorway came a soft croon, and Hiccup lifted his gaze to see Toothless standing there, looking at him worriedly. He gave a soft smile, and motioned for Toothless to come over. The dragon walked into the room and took a seat on the bed next to him.

He swept a hand through his hair, letting out a long breath as he did so. Looked at Toothless. "So, just to make sure I have this straight," he said tiredly. "You were gone for eight days. During that time, you were off, somewhere, making a deal with the _Gods_." He paused for a moment, still unable to completely take in that information. "So you could take on this form? And all of that leads back to me, as a test?"

Toothless looked troubled all the while Hiccup spoke. He was still for a moment, then slowly nodded his head.

Hiccup let out a sarcastic chuckle and hung his head. "How am I even supposed to react to that?" he asked, the inquiry directed more to the floor than Toothless. Silence rung between them, heavy and uncomfortable.

"Is there something I need to do?" he asked then. He looked up, his gaze steady on the dragon, eyes now pleading. "A certain way I need to act? Something that I have to say?"

Toothless stared at him for a long time, his eyes wide and lost. It was then that Hiccup really noticed how upset he looked. His demeanor softened. He reached over and took the dragon's hand in his own and squeezed it.

"I'm sorry," he sighed. "I don't mean to seem like I'm angry about all this or anything. It's just.. a lot to take in, you know?"

Toothless didn't look reassured. If anything, he looked even more disconcerted. "I shhhould be the ooone to apologiize," he said then. "I obviousssly did nottt think things through when I did thisss. I.. did not thiiink of how it might hurttt you."

Hiccup faltered, unsure of what to say. A bubble of affection swelled up inside his chest, and he was unable to prevent the soft smile that melted onto his features.

"It's okay," he said, and he meant it. "Whatever this is, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm just.. overreacting."

Toothless seemed a little unsure at first, but he too allowed himself to smile. He shifted a bit closer and rested his forehead against the boy's.

Hiccup let his eyes fall shut, and it was then that he finally felt himself begin to calm down. All of what he had just found out, there was no denying that it wasn't huge. It was more insane than he ever would have imagined, and he was definitely still a little uncertain about it all, but he just had to remember that it all came down to Toothless. And with him, Hiccup knew that things would be alright. That alone made him feel better.

"_This dragon loves you very, very much_."

Hiccup's stomach gave a small lurch, his eyes drifting open. He spoke Toothless' name, and the dragon lifted his head back up, looking down at him attentively. A little hesitantly, Hiccup reached his free hand up and brought it to Toothless' face, stroking idly with the pad of his thumb.

The Elder's words hadn't surprised him, really. He'd reacted because he was frightened of her knowing about it, but the statement itself hadn't been anything new. Love. He'd been uncertain of saying it to him the previous night, even though he knew deep down that there was no other word for it. As young as he was, and never having felt it before, he still knew. He knew it was how he felt, because he knew that Toothless felt the same. When he really thought about it, it had always been there, lying dormant, waiting to be realized.

"Do you love me?" Hiccup asked then, his tone clear. Toothless made no physical reaction. He simply looked at Hiccup, and answered, "Yes."

Hiccup's heart thudded loudly against his ribcage. He wet his lips. "Will you.. say it?"

Toothless' expression changed this time, a gentle smile playing upon his lips. "I love you."

Hiccup thought he felt himself melting. While the words weren't unexpected, it still felt really, _really_ good to hear them.

And suddenly, the words came easily.

"I love you, too."

Toothless smiled wider, his green eyes shining. Hiccup leaned closer and kissed him, long and soft. Strong arms wound around his back, bringing him nearer, his own hands combing through raven hair.

Hiccup thought idly about how new this all was to him. These kisses, soft, and intimate. The way they touched one another, how easily they fit together. How completely and utterly _happy_ he was with him, how Toothless made him feel like no one else had before.

At the same time though, in the far depths of his mind, he still felt a little scared. Not just because of what they were doing, but just how easily he lost himself in all of it. But.. with Toothless, he was safe. No matter what would come to be with this, Hiccup knew that they'd be alright.

Hiccup felt warm all over when they finally broke apart. Some time went by, the both of them just looking at one another, and whether it was a second, or several minutes, he wasn't sure. It felt almost surreal. He wondered if he'd ever get used to this.

Toothless moved closer to initiate a second kiss, but just as their mouths came together, there was a knock on the front door downstairs.

Hiccup groaned into the now-awkward kiss. Toothless didn't move, neither away from the boy or closer. Hiccup was the first one to pull away, though rather reluctantly. He glared at the wall, waiting for whoever was outside to knock again.

When they did, Hiccup released a dramatic sigh. He stubbornly remained still for a few seconds longer before moving to get up.

"I'll be right back," he told Toothless. And with a reassuring squeeze of his hand, he lifted himself from the bed and left the room.

Another set of knocks sounded through the house as he made his way down the stairs. He made a face, and didn't bother to put on a smile when he finally opened the door. It was replaced rather immediately with a completely different expression however, upon seeing the person standing there.

Astrid stood, her hand poised to knock again, and a mildly surprised look on her face when Hiccup opened the door before she could do so. He was honestly shocked to see her though, seeing as how he didn't remember a time when she'd actually knocked on the door. She had always just let herself in, unannounced most of the time.

"Hiccup!" she said then. She let her hand fall back down to her side. Bit her lip. "How are you?"

For a moment, he was silent. She seemed weird. Not herself. And it made him feel extremely uneasy.

"I'm.. fine," he finally answered. "What about you?"

"Good!" she said a bit too quickly. "I'm alright. But listen, I.. I just wanted to ask if you wanted to come over tonight? With everything that happened, we didn't have our dinner together. Well, to tell the truth, we haven't spent much time together at all lately.." She trailed off, her gaze drifting uncomfortably to the doorframe. "I mean, I know it's not the day we normally have it, but it'd just be nice if we could hang out, you know?"

Hiccup swallowed, his body itching with discomfort. He kept himself composed though, managing a small smile. "Yes! Yes, that's sounds.. of course. Er, around sundown then?"

She beamed. "Yeah, that's good. My parents won't be back from the docks till late, so yeah, that works out."

He swallowed. "Okay, I'll see you then."

"Alright," she said. Happily, she took a step forward and kissed him on the cheek. "See you."

The moment she'd begun walking away from the cabin, Hiccup closed the door, glad to let the fake smile disappear from his face. He stared at the door, unmoving, feeling sick.

* * *

"I'm gonna tell her."

His voice was slightly muffled against cloth. He and Toothless were sitting on the floor underneath his bedroom window, Hiccup leaned over with his face buried in the dragon's shoulder.

Toothless didn't say anything. Just rubbed Hiccup's shoulder in small circles. It helped. A little.

"I'm not ready."

There was a missed beat, a small pause, but he kept on with the soothing ministrations. "I am.. nottt suuure what to say."

"It's okay. You don't need to say anything."

Above them, the window showed the sun dipping lower and lower into the sky, turning the room a glowing orange.

"Aaare you sure?" Toothless asked then. Hiccup stiffened. Looked up.

"What do you mean?"

The dragon said nothing, but just looked at the boy with those wide eyes. The look on his face was a good enough answer though, and Hiccup stared him disbelievingly. "You mean telling Astrid about us? Of course I'm.. why wouldn't I be?"

Toothless looked unsure. He pursed his lips, his gaze dropped downward for a moment before bouncing back up to Hiccup. "I feel like this isss hurting yoouu. Are you sssure this iss what you want?"

Hiccup opened his mouth to respond, but nothing came out. So instead, he pulled Toothless down to him, kissing him deeply. Seconds passed before Hiccup broke the kiss. He pulled away just far enough to bring his lips to the dragon's ear.

"I love _you_," he whispered fervently. He let Toothless go, who now wore an expression of surprise. Hiccup smiled. "And it's because of that that I know I have to do this. It's going to be hard, but you.. are worth it."

Toothless remained still for only a moment before opening his arms. Hiccup fell into them, into the endless warmth and comfort, and he wished he could stay there through the night.

* * *

He knocked on Astrid's door just as the sun disappeared behind the ocean. His heart thudded painfully inside of him, absolutely terrified. He picked idly at the fur on his vest to try and calm himself down. It didn't work. Especially when the door opened and Astrid grinned at him. He thought his chest might explode. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him inside.

"Astrid," he said once the door was closed, though a little too quietly, as she just continued past him toward the kitchen. She opened a cabinet and pulled out two mugs.

"Do you want the bigger one, Hiccup? Or does it matter?" she asked, her voice lighter than he thought he had ever heard it. She was still acting weird..

He remained still, and in the sternest voice he could muster, "Astrid."

She heard him this time. She turned, slowly setting the mugs on the table in front of her, her expression a little surprised.

He faltered. Didn't know what to say. He had tried to plan out what he would say to her on the way here, but he didn't remember any of it now. His heart continued to hammer away in his chest.

"I need to talk to you."

Her demeanor changed almost immediately. Her shoulders slumped, her hands resting flat against the tabletop. She looked at him, her gaze steady, mouth pursed in a thin line. Overall, she looked as though.. she had been expecting him to say that.

He wished desperately for something, anything, to tell him how he needed to say this. Some kind of guidebook. 'How to Dump Your Girlfriend'. Yeah, that sounded good.

"Astrid," he said again. "I'm not.. I don't exactly.." He bit his lip, feeling more and more like an idiot as the seconds ticked by. Gods, how he just wanted to run out of house and away from her.

Astrid moved then. Her eyes stuck on him, she walked, rather quickly back over to him, stopping just an inch away. The step he took backward was immediate and involuntary, but she grabbed him by the collar and kissed him hard on the mouth. The noise that escaped his throat was also immediate and involuntary, and it was all he could do to keep his hands from pushing back on her shoulders.

She released him rather quickly, much to Hiccup's relief. She kept a tight hold on his shirt however, and her face still extremely close to his own. Her hard, gray eyes bore into him, her expression stern now.

"You never kiss me back," she said.

He felt his stomach drop. "Astrid.. I'm-"

"Don't," she interrupted. Her voice however, was much softer than he expected it to be. It wasn't cold, it wasn't angry. Just, there. Slowly, she let go of his collar, and took a step back. "So.. you wanted to tell me that you want to split up, right?"

He gaped at her. But he gave it his all to snap out of his dumbfounded state, stand straight, and utter a single word. "Yes."

Her gaze fell, as did the corners of her mouth. "I'm really not surprised. Things have always been kind of.. I should've said something a month ago when I started noticing.." She bit her lip, didn't finish. "But I.. care about you. A lot. Hiccup." She looked back up to him. "Can't we.. I don't know, talk this out? Is there something we can figure out?"

A moment passed between them in absolute stillness and silence. Hiccup didn't know what to say. He should tell he exactly what was going on, but he just couldn't. He could barely break up with her, let alone tell her _why_. At least not the full story. Not now.

His lack of an answer seemed to be answer enough, because Astrid seemed to slump over. A sad smile appeared on her face. "Okay," she said quietly. "Okay."

He moved to reach out and touch her shoulder, but he stopped. He wanted to apologize, but nothing in his head sounded anywhere near good enough. She probably wouldn't believe him anyway. He didn't blame her.

"I'm.. sorry," he pushed out, his voice unsteady. "Someday, I want to be able to tell you what's going on right now, but.. I can't now. I'm sorry, Astrid, really I am."

She looked at him for a moment, taking in his words. She shrugged. "It's.. if there's nothing to be done about it, then it can't be helped. I.." she hesitated, brought her arms around herself. "Could you leave?"

His heart sunk. He didn't dare protest though. He simply nodded, trying his hardest not to look as upset as he felt. And without another moment's hesitation, he turned and left the cabin.

* * *

Toothless was sitting on the front steps when he came back. The sight of him made Hiccup's footsteps lighter somehow. He trudged up to him, coming to a stop at the bottom step. Toothless got up and had the boy in his arms in an instant. Briefly Hiccup worried about the fact that they were outside, but he dismissed it. It was dark out, and he honestly didn't care much anyway. He needed this warmth. Needed it like he needed air. He clung to him with no intention of moving away anytime soon.

Much to his disappointment however, Toothless pulled away. "I thought we cooouuuld spend the niiight in the grotto againnn," he said, gesturing to a pile of blankets on the steps that Hiccup hadn't noticed before. "I figured you woouuld want sssome time away from the village."

Hiccup's gaze returned to Toothless from the blankets and back again. Then he smiled. "Yeah. That sounds great," he said. "Thank you."

Toothless returned the smile, planting a warm kiss to the boy's forehead before detaching himself from him completely. He reached behind him to bundle up the blankets, holding them with both arms. Wordlessly, they began their trek into the woods.

The sky above them was cloudless, the stars shining brightly against the black. Hiccup laid out one of the blankets on the ground, half underneath a pine tree. He settled himself down onto it, and immediately let himself fall back, arms spread out and relaxed. Toothless was next to him soon after, bringing the other blanket along with him, making sure to cover the both of them.

He propped himself up on one elbow. Brushed a stray piece of rust colored hair from Hiccup's face. "Aaare you alright?"

Hiccup wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't know how he felt, really. He thought he'd be at least a little happy that he'd broken it off with Astrid so he wasn't betraying her anymore, but if anything, he felt like he was only betraying her even more. He didn't tell her about Toothless. How could he? But by not telling her, she might even assume that it was her fault that he'd wanted to split up. He felt like he was still lying to her.

"I will be," he finally settled on. "So long as I've got you, anyway."

Toothless smiled. Leaned down and rested his forehead against Hiccup's. "You will alwayssss haaave me."


	8. Dark and Light

WHOOOO, just as promised guys, I'm back on schedule! :D I'm really happy I kept with that haha. But I hope this was worth the wait for you guys, I still feel bad for skipping out on you last week. BUT, won't update again until after Christmas, so I hope everybody has a nice holiday C:

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**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 8: "Dark and Light"  
**...

Three days passed with no changes. Well, more like there weren't any_more_ changes. Which Hiccup was completely fine with. As dramatically different things had become, it all finally seemed to be settling down. A simple pattern of doing things had come to light, and he was doing his best to follow that. For one, he had so far been able to keep Toothless a secret from the rest of the village. He took trips to the mess hall to bring them back food, and whenever anyone asked, he said that Toothless was still sick and needed taken care of. His father was still extremely uneasy around the dragon, and normally didn't stay in the same room with him for too long. He was coming around though, Hiccup thought. At least now he didn't carry his axe around the house with him as though the dragon would attack him at any given moment.

He had also been successful in hiding their relationship. He was always cautious about being affectionate with Toothless, never allowing anything whenever his dad was in the house. It was usually only during their late-night trisks to the grotto did he feel completely at ease kissing him, touching him, falling asleep next to him.

It did bother Hiccup though, having to be so secretive and careful all of the time. Mostly because he knew it bothered Toothless as well. He felt terrible having to push the dragon away while they were in the house, but.. it was the smart thing to do, right? No one could find out, Hiccup was certain of this. Despite the worry that came with their relationship, he was the happiest he had ever been, and he was going to protect that no matter what.

So things were finally calming down, much to Hiccup's relief. One of the few things that caused him any disquiet however, was Astrid. She, quite understandably, hadn't spoken to him since that night. He'd only seen her once, in the mess hall, where they'd made eye contact for all of two seconds before she hurriedly walked off in the opposite direction. He'd also had Fishlegs come up to him the other day and ask about it, as well as the twins. To all of them he simply answered with, "Things just weren't working out."

What upset him the most was the fact that he knew he had lost someone he cared about. Despite their relationship just becoming more and more awkward, Hiccup still felt like he could talk to her about most things. It was nothing compared to how at ease he was with Toothless, but he'd still felt comfortable around her. More so than any other the other kids anyway. And now, he didn't expect her to talk to him again for a long time, if at all. So he tried not to dwell on it too much.

After all, it was as he had told Toothless the night he'd broken up with her. All Hiccup needed was him. Nothing more, nothing less.

* * *

"I'm gonna go bring us back some dinner, you want anything in particular?"

Toothless looked up, his tail swishing to the left. Shook his head. "Just fish," he replied. There was barely any slur left in his words when he spoke now. There was still an odd scratchiness to it though, but Hiccup just felt it made it unique. He liked listening to him talk.

"Alright bud, can do," he said. "I'll be back in a little bit."

He turned to leave his room when he heard a shuffling across the floor, and a hand grab firm hold of his shoulder. He turned back, Toothless looking at him a little unsurely. There was a moment of hesitation before he spoke.

"Do I have to stay here?"

Hiccup's shoulders fell. He looked up at the dragon. "Toothless.." he began, but was unsure of how to continue. Toothless seemed to understand with just that however, and shook his head with a small, disappointed smile.

"No, it is alright."

Hiccup bit his lip. "You know I can't stand keeping you in here all the time."

Toothless was silent for a moment, then nodded. "I do."

A few seconds passed where neither said anything. Then, Toothless took a step away and went back to his makeshift bed of blankets right next to Hiccup's.

Hiccup stood there looking at his friend, feeling rather badly. He still didn't know what to do about the whole situation, and anytime he thought about it, it just seemed that there was no plausible solution. He couldn't keep Toothless inside forever, couldn't keep him a secret. But he was too frightened to even think of what might happen if he revealed him to the village. Too scared that something horrible might happen if he did. There were just too many what-ifs, and too many of those were negative.

A little hesitantly, Hiccup walked over to Toothless and sat down directly in front of him. He opened his mouth once, but nothing came. Then a thought came. He smiled. "You know, being with you.. I really feel like the luckiest guy in the world," he told him. "I'm so happy. And all I want to do is be able to tell everybody how I feel, to show you to everyone, show you off, to icelebrate/i my happiness."

Toothless tilted his head slightly, staring at the boy attentively. Hiccup's smile fell. "It just seems wrong that I should have to hide how I feel. Love is supposed to be such a good thing, isn't it? And you.. I'll get you out of here soon, I promise. I just need to figure out how I'm going to do that first."

The two looked on at each other in silence for a moment before Toothless nodded. "I know you are only trying to protect me," he said. Then, his tone sincere, he added, "I am fine. If you think it is for the best, I will stay here. I do not mind."

Hiccup smiled again, and the dragon returned it. He stood up and made his way back to the door again.

"I'll be back."

Toothless nodded, and with that, Hiccup left the room.

* * *

When Hiccup arrived at the mess hall, it was just as noisy as it was crowded. Better that way, he thought. The more people, the less chance there was of him being noticed by anyone. He'd already been questioned enough times to last him a lifetime, and the quicker he could get food and leave, the better.

He squeezed through the rows of tables and people sitting down, and was just glad he'd managed to make it over to the food without knocking over anybody or anything. Following his normal pattern, he opened up his rucksack and tossed in some meat and bread for himself, and a generous amount of fish in for Toothless. Then he turned and followed the same path he'd taken in to leave, and once again, made it through without any kind of disaster. Or being cornered into answering hundreds of questions.

Strolling through the large entryway, he was glad to be outside again. He'd never been one to love crowded areas, but the risk of running into his friends, or even Astrid, just had him on a much sharper edge than before. So when his house came into view a few minutes later, he felt a little more at ease. He picked up his pace.

Just as he put his foot on the bottom step however, a voice came from his left.

"Hiccup!"

He jumped slightly, his heart picking up speed in his chest. He turned to look, and was surprised to see Snotlout walking out from the shadows next to his house. He raised an eyebrow, took a step back down onto the ground. Snotlout walked over to him wearing his normal cocky expression.

"Hey man," he said. "Haven't seen you in like, a year or something, what's that about?"

Hiccup did his best to push his bewilderment aside. This was definitely odd. He'd never spent time with the other boy alone before, it was always in their group. And for him to just come to his house? It was strange, of that much Hiccup was sure of. He put on a smile though, and shrugged. "Yeah, it has. I've just been busy, I'm sure you've heard from the others."

"Yeah, yeah," he nodded. "Ruffnut, Tuffnut.. Astrid."

There was a pause, and Snotlout's expression became stern. "I talked to her today, you know."

Hiccup noticed the change in the boy in front of him. It made him uneasy. ".. Oh? Astrid you mean?"

Snotlout nodded. He smiled again, but it wasn't the carefree smile Hiccup had come to know over the past few months. No, this was extremely reminiscent of how Snotlout had behaved toward him before all of that. The smile he knew much better.

"Yeah, Astrid," he answered. "And you know, weirdest thing, but she actually seemed pretty down. I mean, you know her, she's never like that."

He had begun walking slowly to Hiccup's right, who merely swallowed and watched him as he eventually began to circle him.

"It took a while, but I eventually got her to spill the beans about why she was so upset," he continued, his gaze held steady on the smaller boy. Hiccup began to feel more than a little nervous. "You know.. I never did like the idea of you two together. I tried for a long time to convince her that you'd never be enough for her, but she wouldn't have any of that."

Hiccup remained silent. Not only did he not know what to come back with, but he was frightened of trying to reason with him. Ashamed to admit it as he was, Hiccup had always been the most frightened of him. The twins were normally only verbally abusive, Fishlegs and Astrid normally left him alone, but Snotlout was always the one to go out of his way to scare him, even when they were much younger. He'd never hurt him too bad, but Snotlout had definitely dished out a good amount of physical bullying. And right now, the way he was talking, how he was moving, it was just all too familiar, and Hiccup knew that no matter what he said, nothing would convince Snotlout to just leave.

The older Viking ceased in his circling. "So imagine my reaction when she told me that you actually dumped her." He laughed. "I gotta tell you man, I never would've thought that's how it would've turned out. Or that you even had it in you. But seriously.. I always knew you were weird. I mean, what guy in their right mind would dump her?"

Something about those words – Hiccup didn't know what - caused him to speak up. "That's between me and her," he said, surprised by how steady his voice was despite his shaking body. "There's more to her than her looks, you know. Maybe if you saw that, she'd actually give you a chance."

Snotlout stared at him, his eyes wide, but whether he was more surprised or angry, Hiccup couldn't tell. But then his expression changed, and he looked absolutely furious. "Yeah?" he spat, moving in so close that his face was a mere inch or so away from Hiccup's. "So you're mister sensitive now? Is that why she picked you?"

Again, Hiccup had no idea where he was getting the courage to speak, but it was almost pouring out of him. "I'm not her, so I obviously can't tell you why. Why don't you take it up with her?"

Snotlout gritted his teeth. "Well, well.. we're certainly much more talkative than we used to be. I think I might have to fix that."

Hiccup felt his stomach drop, but the adrenaline coursing through him kept him feeling stronger nonetheless. When the impact came, hard and fast on his left cheek, he was only half ready, and he lost balance on his metal leg, toppling over in a heap on the ground. The entire side of his face stung, but he pushed the pain aside and began to get up again. He was prevented from doing so however, when an even stronger blow hit him in the chest from Snotlout's foot. The force of it sent him into the ground again. He coughed, lying still this time.

Somewhere, distant as though in the back of his mind, Hiccup heard a loud slam. Then, Snotlout let out an odd noise of shock. A thud, a yelp, shouting, rustling. Finally Hiccup rolled himself over to see what in the world had happened, his jaw dropping at the sight before him.

Toothless had Snotlout wrestled to the ground, a firm hold on both of the teenager's wrists. Snotlout was staring up at his attacker with fear and confusion, while Toothless sneered down at him like newly caught prey. The boy struggled against him, but Toothless held him down with what looked like little effort. Hiccup watched as the dragon slowly leaned down so he was nearer to Snotlout's face. And with a smile on his face, and a disturbingly calm tone, he said, "If you _ever_ touch him again, I promise to burn you from the inside out. Slowly. _Painfully_."

If possible, Snotlout's eyes went even wider, the fear more than evident on his face. "D-devil!" he shouted. "Get away from me, you-!"

Toothless laughed. "Oh, I'm no devil, but rest assured, I can do to you what any devil could, and then some."

Snoutlout whimpered, and with one final smirk, Toothless released him, and the boy took off running down the hill. Toothless was still for a moment, watching him go, before turning to Hiccup, who was frozen in place, the shock of it all still running through him. Toothless kneeled down next to him, his green eyes wide and worried, hands moving frantically up and down his body.

"Are you okay? Hiccup? Are you alright?"

It was odd, Hiccup thought, how drastically his voice had changed from what he had just heard. His head was spinning, one hand taking in a fistful of the ground beneath him as if trying to steady himself. Toothless continued to fuss over him until he finally sat himself up.

"I'm.. alright," he finally said. Unsurprisingly, Toothless looked unconvinced. "Just a bit of a shock, I guess."

Toothless looked at him for a long time, before reaching out and pulling Hiccup into his arms. "I am sorry," he spoke into the boy's hair. "I've scared you."

Hiccup's eyes widened.

"I don't know what came over me," he continued. "I saw what was happening outside of the window, and I just.. lost control. I was so furious, I.." He trailed off, and was silent after that. Hiccup finally moved, wrapping his arms around the dragon's waist.

"It's okay," he whispered. "You were just protecting me. It's not like this is the first time you've gone a little overboard with the rescuing thing."

There was a pause, then they both laughed. When the silence rung between them again, Toothless asked, "Can we go down to the grotto tonight?"

Hiccup nodded against his chest, thinking that he would like nothing better.

* * *

Almost as soon as they arrived, they were lying on the ground next to each other. Hiccup clung to the dragon, still a little shook up from what had happened. He felt better now that they were in "their" place, where no one could get them, but he still felt uneasy.

Toothless stroked his hair. "Are you sure you are not angry with me?"

Hiccup shook his head. "I'm not. Just.. upset that it had to happen, you know? And who knows what Snotlout's gonna do now. Probably tell half the village that some devil flew out of my house and tried to kill him."

Toothless didn't say anything, but just watched as Hiccup closed his eyes and nuzzled into his shoulder.

A thought occurred to Hiccup then. "You know.. I think that first time you saved me was when I first began to love you. Like.. like this, I mean."

".. What?"

"That day in the training ring," he stated. "Somehow, from all the way back in the woods, you knew I was in trouble, and you came to me. Defended me. Amongst all of the chaos, I remember feeling something I couldn't really touch on. But now I think.. that was the beginning of my feelings for you."

Quite abruptly, Toothless sat up and away from him, his eyes wide with surprise. Hiccup sat up with him, a little alarmed.

"You loved me.. back then?" he asked, his voice soft.

Hiccup stared at him. "Yeah," he said. "Of course I did."

Toothless only looked confused now. "Before I.. before I changed?" he implored, gesturing to himself.

"_Yes_," Hiccup said again. "How could.. you really thought I only felt this way about you because of that?"

Toothless looked more than a little distressed. "But that night in your room! You left me. I thought you.."

"I was scared!" Hiccup exclaimed. "Ever _since_ that day in the training ring, I've been scared of how I was feeling. That night.. I ran because I'd wanted it, and that terrified me more than I knew how to deal with. And I was going to try and come to terms with it, but you.." He stopped. Blinked. Something had struck him then, a realization. His heart hammered beneath his ribcage.

"Toothless, you.. you changed because you thought.. you thought it would get me to love you?"

The dragon stared at him for a few long seconds, then very slowly, nodded his head.

Hiccup didn't know what to say. He didn't know whether he was more surprised, amused, or dumbfounded. For a moment, all he could do was look at his companion, who was very obviously waiting for him to make the next move.

"Toothless," he managed out. "I've always thought you were.. the most amazing creature I'd ever seen. Powerful, mysterious.. beautiful."

The dragon continued to stare at him, as though he couldn't believe anything Hiccup was saying. To emphasize his point, the boy leaned forward and kissed him firmly on the mouth. When he pulled away, his hand lingered on Toothless' face.

"I love you," he said. "I've _always_ loved you, and that'll never change no matter what you look like. It was your original form that I fell in love with, after all."

Toothless was still frozen in place, the same dumbfounded look upon his face. Then, slowly, it melted into a smile. The happiest smile Hiccup had ever seen on him. He barely had time to smile back before the dragon swooped in and captured the teenager's mouth with his own, kissing him with all the passion he held inside of him. Hiccup sighed into the kiss, bringing his arms up to loop around his neck, locking tight and bringing him even closer.

Then all too soon, Toothless pulled away, and unexpectedly pulled himself apart from Hiccup and stood up. He took a few steps backward, and when Hiccup moved to follow him, he put up his hand.

"No," he said. "Don't move."

Completely bewildered, Hiccup did as told. He pushed himself up off the ground and managed to stand back up, but he stayed where he was. Then, seemingly from nowhere, the wind began to blow. The boy stared as a light, soft at first, but began to grow brighter, blossomed in the ground at Toothless' feet. The wind blew harder, and Hiccup had to brace himself against it, holding a hand up in front of his eyes so he could still see the dragon.

Except now, he was completely engulfed in light, and Hiccup could no longer see him. And then, as soon as it had all started, everything went quiet.

Quiet and dark.


	9. Water

LOL WOW LOOK AT THIIIIIIS. A new chapter! AND I'M ONLY SIX MONTHS LATE.

Seriously guys, I'm so sorry this went without an update for so long. I have no other excuse other than I was being lazy, and I was really stuck with this chapter. I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but at least it's pretty long? D: IDK, I really hope you guys like it because I feel so bad for not updating in so long :C

But, uh, **warnings for this chapter **include some hinted-at boy/dragon sex. NO SHAME, NO SHAME. I began this story intending to cater to both versions of this pairing, and that's what I'm doing. I totally understand if that squicks some people out, but you can just scroll past it if you want~

SO WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, the long awaited new chapter! :D

...

**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 9: "Water"  
**...

Hiccup blinked. Once. Twice. His eyes watered against the sudden disappearance of the blinding light. At first all he saw were spots, then slowly, the world around him returned. There was movement in front of him, like steps coming toward him. He listened as hard as he could, his eyes still adjusting, and he realized something. Those steps were different now. No longer light and quick as they had been, but.. much more familiar. Heavy.

Then, something nudged his elbow, and he automatically froze at the contact. He blinked a few times more and finally, he could see. Part of him already knew what he was going to see, but the choke of surprise that issued from his throat was involuntary when he saw him.

Toothless. He was a dragon again.

Hiccup gaped, his mouth moving, but unable to form words. After a few seconds of this, Toothless cooed, looking up at his companion with a sad expression. He took a step backward, poised to continue away from the boy, but Hiccup immediately reached out his hand.

"No," he said firmly. Toothless stopped. Hiccup moved forward to close the distance between them once more, laying his hand softly on the dragon's forehead. "That just.. surprised me, is all, bud. You know me, I'm jumpy about everything." He offered Toothless a smile, which was returned a little hesitantly. Hiccup slowly moved his thumb back and forth across the smooth, black scales, Toothless emitting a barely audible purr at the touch.

Hiccup looked at him. _Really_ looked at him. It was odd, he thought, how drastic of a change this was, and yet.. it didn't phase him. It had surprised him, but only because he hadn't expected it. But seeing him like this again, it almost felt like he had never taken on his humanoid form at all. It was hard to comprehend, but in its simplest form, Hiccup assumed this was apart of really, truly loving someone. It hardly mattered to him at all what Toothless looked like, because all he saw was _him_. The one who'd accepted him when nobody else would, the one he felt safest with, his soul mate. He could transform into a sheep, but to Hiccup he would still be his Toothless.

A thought occurred to him then. "Toothless is this.. I mean, did you change again because of what I said about loving you before you changed the first time?"

Toothless was still for a moment, then nodded. Hiccup nodded as well, but more so to himself. He thought so. It was all falling into place now. Toothless had gone to the Gods and requested he be given a more human form so that he could have a chance with Hiccup. And just as the Elder had said, it was all a test, a trial. Something Hiccup had to pass in order for them to be happy. Half of that, Hiccup now knew, was based upon how he really felt about Toothless. He'd had to say that his love was unbiased, and that triggered the transformation back into a dragon. The second half however, he was still lost on. This wasn't the end of it all, he could sense that much. He was still being judged. But now.. it wasn't so unnerving. Well, knowing that the Gods were watching him, practically keeping score and taking notes on his actions was iextremely/i unnerving, but he now had a sense of calm to gasp onto. He at least knew now that this was all about his love for Toothless, and proving it true.

And that, well, wasn't going to be very hard at all as far as he was concerned. There was no way he was going to fail. The only question now was what was going to happen once he did pass. Toothless had already changed back. What more was there to do?

Another nudge, this time against his middle, shook the boy from his thoughts. He smiled at the dragon. "Sorry bud. Just lost in thought about all of this."

Toothless cooed, nuzzling again against Hiccup's stomach. He let out a chuckle and scratched Toothless behind his ear. Then, slowly, he leaned down and pressed his forehead against the dragons.

"Hey.. you wanna go flying?"

* * *

The pair of them all but ran back through the forest, eager as could be to be up in the air again. When they finally reached the shed behind Hiccup's house, he was completely out of breath. Toothless was still hopping around of course, wiggling behind Hiccup as he opened up the wooden door and took out all of the usual equipment. He was suddenly thankful that he'd decided to make a spare tail incase of an emergency, seeing as how the other one had disappeared. He took that out too and began hooking it all up. Toothless could barely sit still, so it all took a bit longer than it should've, but Hiccup didn't mind.

Then, after he double checked to make sure everything was in place and secure, Hiccup hopped up onto his partner's back. He hooked his metal leg into the switch, and with one last pause, Toothless kicked off from the ground, and into the cool night air they went.

And oh, it was magnificent. Hiccup let go of the breath he hadn't realized he was holding as he let out long, enthusiastic yell. They flew up high above Berk, Hiccup's heart soaring even higher than that. He couldn't believe how much he'd missed this. He really thought that this had to be the equivalent to being depraved of water for two weeks, then being thrown into a lake. It washed over him, and all he could do was take it all in. He let Toothless lead their movements, and the dragon dipped and rose, doing spins and dives, flying inches above the water, then high above the clouds.

Hiccup never wanted it to end. It felt hours they were up there. Every so often they would take turns on who would lead, what direction they'd fly in, and as though their last flight together had just been yesterday, they were still perfectly in synch with each other. Two beings flawlessly moving as one.

After a while, Hiccup noticed that they'd flown quite a bit away from the island, and coincidentally, in the direction of the island they'd camped on a few months ago. Sure enough, within a few minutes it was in sight. A dark blot on the even darker stretch of ocean. Hiccup only had to nudge Toothless once before he understood, and slowly began to descend. They landed smoothly on the shore a few seconds later, and Toothless walked across the sand, coming to a stop where grass grew. Hiccup glanced around. It was all just the same as they'd left it.

He clambered off the dragon and began unhitching everything save for his tailfin. He placed it all in a semi-neat pile next to a nearby boulder.

"You wanna help me get some wood for a fire?" he asked the dragon. Toothless nodded vigorously in response, and trotted beside the boy as they began their search. They found some small twigs where the trees began, but continued on into the forest a little in search of larger kindle.

Minutes later, they trudged out of the woods and back to their spot at the back of the beach. Hiccup carried a sizeable bundle of wood in his arms, while Toothless carried a few larger logs in his mouth. Once back, Hiccup took to setting up a portion of the wood in a neat formation, then took a few steps back. As if on queue, Toothless gave a small spurt of blue light, and the wood burst into flame instantly.

"Thanks, bud," he said with a small smile. Toothless cooed, and laid down on the grass before the fire. Hiccup walked over to him and lowered himself down next to him. He wasted no time in curling up against the warm body, fitting in as snugly as he could. Toothless raised one of his wings and laid it atop the boy, surrounding him with warmth. He smiled, and it was hardly a few minutes before his eyes began to fall shut.

Just before sleep claimed him, he told Toothless that he loved him. The dragon replied with a purr, but Hiccup understood just fine.

* * *

The two ended up staying on the island for another day. Hiccup was able to round up some fish for himself, and Toothless did the same. They went exploring for a few hours, first walking along the beaches, then delving into the forest a little, before turning back. By sundown, Hiccup had a much larger fire than the previous night's going, while Toothless had gone to splash around in the water.

Hiccup turned his head in the direction of the beach. "Are you coming back in yet?" he shouted. The splashing continued, the large dragon hopping about the water like a child. Hiccup shook his head, a small smile playing on his features. He stood up from his spot by the fire, and began walking out onto the beach. The dragon noticed him approaching and ceased in his gallivanting. He cocked his head in a manner that clearly stated, 'you coming out here or what?'

The boy stopped a few feet before shoreline, hands on his hips, contemplating the invitation. He actually had not gone swimming in a long time, so it was extremely tempting. He knew it was bad to submerge his metal leg in water for more than a minute or two, but.. this was a special occasion. Besides, he had an extra appendage at home in case of emergencies.

Mind made up, Hiccup grinned. "Alright, you've convinced me!" Toothless let out a roar and proceeded with his splashing. Hiccup stripped himself of his clothing and all but sprinted into the water, and the moment he reached a deep enough spot, he dunked himself under. The ocean water was cold with the incoming winter, but nothing he wasn't used to having grown up swimming in the same ocean, just on a different shore.

Quickly running out of breath - staying underwater being something he'd never been good at - he pushed against the sandy earth beneath him and shot upward, breaking the surface of the water with a loud intake of oxygen. His now soaked skin tingled against the chilly night air, but it felt amazing to him after all this time. He flipped his hair back out of his eyes to look for Toothless. Who, strangely, was nowhere to be seen.

Hiccup blew out his cheeks. Toothless had to be hiding in the water somewhere close in hopes of scaring him, and it was probably going to work. The only light was from the moon, and it shone so brightly against the water that it was impossible to make out anything once it was submerged. So, he took to floating around, this way and that, awaiting the inevitable attack.

However, none came. At least five minutes had to've gone by, and by this time Hiccup had advanced past confusion well into worrying. He kept spinning in the water, looking all around, and still he was alone. Finally he decided to get out of the water and wait for the dragon on land a little bit longer. Just as he was almost out though, his entire backside was sprayed with icy water. Hiccup let out a high-pitched yelp and whipped around.

Sure enough. Toothless floated nearby with a devilish smirk on his face.

"Oh you are going to _GET_ it!" Hiccup exclaimed, jumping back into the ocean, splashing water on the dragon with all his might. Toothless easily jumped out of the way of each mini wave the boy sent his way, but Hiccup kept on splashing, laughing all the while.

It was indefinite how long they carried on together. If it had gotten darker, neither had noticed. If it had gotten colder, their exertions kept them warm. The sound of splashing became a monotonous hum mixed with the sound of yells, roars, and laughter. Hiccup s attempts of revenge however, were futile, and it wasn't long before his body decided enough was enough. Maneuvering in the water with his leg wasn't as hard as he'd thought it might be, but it still wasn't the same as having two good ones to work with.

"Okay!" Hiccup exclaimed, throwing his hands up in defeat. "I give up! You win!" And with that, he toppled backwards in an overly dramatic matter, landing on his back in the shallow water. The surface of it lapped at his ear, creating a sort of halo against the outline of his body. It was an odd sensation, but it made him smile. He closed his eyes.

A few feet away he heard soft splashes in the water coming closer to him, then when he opened his eyes, all he saw was green. Green mixed beautifully with flecks of yellow and brown. Hiccup didn't move, all too taken with those eyes so close to his own. His smile grew wider. The dragon cooed, barely audible above the sounds of the ocean, but Hiccup felt the vibrations of it. It made him feel warm, and before he had noticed any movement, he felt a soft heat blossom on his neck. Toothless had dipped his head to nuzzle the skin with his nose. Hiccup couldn't prevent the giggle that rose up in his throat at the touch, but it was all but silenced when he felt something hot, wet, and tantalizingly familiar in the same spot.

Neither of them moved. Hiccup, struck frozen as his mind flew back to the night before Toothless had left him. Toothless was still as well, waiting for the consent of his master before making any other movement. Frightened to death though he was, Hiccup now knew what he wanted. He'd realized it during the week of Toothless' absence, and he wasn't going to make the same mistake again. He lifted his hand to Toothless' head, placing a feather-soft touch on his jaw.

"Go on."

There was barely a second's pause before Toothless moved again. The huge dragon shifted his body so he was positioned above the boy, one leg on either side of the small figure beneath him. His tongue immediately found its way to Hiccup's neck, licking in small, chaste strokes. It was so familiar, yet so achingly different this time. This time he wasn't scared. Not of Toothless or his feelings, at least. The dragon began to apply more pressure with his tongue, gathering speed with each caress, Hiccup's breathing mimicking the ministrations. Pale hands rested against the dragon's forearms, fingers flexing.

Toothless moved lower, licking at the boy's shoulder and collarbone. Then he moved away a little, confusing Hiccup for a moment, then gave the lightest of nuzzles to his mouth. Almost immediately, Hiccup understood what he was trying to do. He smiled and coaxed Toothless closer until their mouths met in an awkward kiss. It was definitely hard at first, the two of them trying different angles, and while it never was a perfect fit, it was enjoyable. A moan slipped out of Hiccup the moment his mouth opened, encouraging the dragon on. Heat stemmed from their kiss, spreading all throughout him, focusing on one spot in particular. The nervous feeling he'd had all but vanished when need began to pulse through him.

The water lapped at him, creating an odd contrast against the heat of his body. Out in the distance the waves crashed, loud against the night, drowning out their needy intonations. This night belonged to them. The sounds of the ocean and the darkness of midnight serving as a kind of protection from the outside world, at last allowing the two souls to be joined together as one.

* * *

Waking up the next morning was an extremely slow process. The first thing Hiccup's mind registered was the warm breeze, soft against his exposed skin. One by one his consciousness picked up on other things. The sand beneath him, the sound of the wind rustling the trees. He was awake at this point, but was reluctant to move or even open his eyes. He entire body felt like lead.

It was then that his mind raced back to the previous night's.. exertions. His heart immediately began to flutter in his chest, followed a tingly feeling bubbling in his stomach. He couldn't prevent the smile that stretched across his features just below his now fluttering eyelids. Once open however, he was met with a surprise.

Toothless was human again.

On instinct, Hiccup jolted his head up, staring at the creature lying beside him. His shock only lasted a few seconds however, his expression softening. His abrupt movement had disturbed Toothless though, who was now coming to. Hiccup reached out and tenderly brushed back messy black hair from the dragon's face. Toothless smiled softly in his half-awake state, a purr emitting from his body. His eyes opened slightly, remaining half-lidded as he looked up at Hiccup.

"So when did you change?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless closed his eyes. Opened them. "Shortly after you fell asleep," he answered, his voice rough with sleep. "I wanted to hold you, and.. we fit better together when I am in this form."

It was true, Hiccup realized. Something that he'd known, but never took note of. Snuggling, cuddling, hugging; it was definitely easier when Toothless was human. But Hiccup couldn't deny how much he loved the sensation of being completely enveloped in his dragon form, so much larger than his own. Falling asleep last night had been no problem whatsoever.

"I see," Hiccup said with a tiny smirk. "So you can change at will now, I take it?" It was rather amusing, he thought, how calmly he was asking something like that.

Toothless' answer was a nod followed by a deep yawn. "Well, for now anyway," he said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Hiccup asked.

Toothless shook his head. Hiccup pouted. Just another one of those things he couldn't know about yet, he supposed. He turned away from his companion and sat up, stretching his arms over his head as he did so. Gods, his neck felt sore. Sleeping on hard ground was one thing, but he definitely wasn't used to sleeping on sand. He looked around the beach for his clothing, spotting them in a pile just a few feet away. Toothless whined as he got on his feet and went to fetch them.

Hiccup fumbled around trying to get his trousers on. Balancing on his fake leg in the sand wasn't easy either, but he eventually got them on. Before he could throw on his tunic however, something touched his shoulder, causing him to yelp. Upon whirling around, he saw Toothless there, staring at the spot where his hand met Hiccup's shoulder.

"Toothless, what-?"

He followed his gaze, and was surprised to see a rather large bite mark etched in his skin. Two layers of deep red circles that began at his collarbone and ended just below his shoulder. Apparently something that had occurred last night. Hiccup almost giggled at the fact that he didn't remember such a thing being done to him.

"It is not painful, is it?" Toothless asked.

Hiccup waved his hand in dismissal. "No," he said truthfully. He hadn't even noticed it before. "Actually, I think it's kinda cool. Like a battle scar or something."

Toothless laughed. He lowered his head and shamelessly dragged his forked tongue from the boy's shoulder, tracing the wound, and up his neck. Hiccup shuddered, his weight shifting backwards into the dragon. Ebony arms wound around his waist, bringing him even closer, and he continued to nibble on the soft skin, nibbles that slowly melted into small kisses. Then Toothless stopped and rested his forehead against the boy's shoulder. They stood in a peaceful silence.

For the first time since he woke up, Hiccup thought about the previous night. Really thought about it. Now that his senses were working their way to being fully functional, the reality of it all was finally starting to hit him. What they'd done.. if one looked at in the light that they were two living beings that were in love, it was completely normal. But sadly, Hiccup knew, there was more to it than that. Much, much more. According to how he'd been raised, the previous night was every negative word known to man. Even iwith/i the new alliance between the dragons and his people, it was still beyond any kind of moral reasoning.

Though the years, Hiccup had grown accustomed to how he knew things were going to be. He was always going to be skinny and terrible with weapons, he was always going to be weird. Somewhere in the back of his mind, falling in love with a dragon almost made sense to him. He'd resisted his feelings at first, but eventually he figured something just as crazy would've happened sooner or later. It seemed like no matter what, he was destined to go against his people and their beliefs. And last night..

"You do not regret it, do you?" Toothless' voice asked from behind him, interrupting his thoughts.

Hiccup knew what he meant. He turned himself around in Toothless' hold so he could face him. "That's an incredibly stupid question," he answered firmly. At first, the dragon looked a little taken aback, but then Hiccup smiled. "Something that amazing? Are you kidding? The only thing I'll regret when he go back home is that we didn't take full _advantage_ of the fact that we have this whole beach all to ourselves."

Toothless' grin was immediate. A millisecond passed before their mouths crashed together in a mashup of teeth, tongue, and soft laughter. So fast, Hiccup thought, but he loved it. Craved it. Last night had opened up a whole new door for them, and he didn't think he's ever get enough of it. He didn't remember falling to his knees and pulling Toothless down with him. Hands grabbed at anything they could, and Hiccup could feel the dragon's long fingernails in five places at once it seemed.

Hiccup thought for a moment how completely sore he was going to be by the time they finally made it back home, but he didn't really mind.


	10. What Else?

HEY GUYS LOOK I'M STILL UPDATIIIIING LOL. Actually, this is pretty short compared to my other chapters, but as I was writing, I figured this was a good cut-off point. That and I didn't wanna keep you guys waiting too much longer c: I'm pretty happy with this chapter though. It was a little spontaneous amongst my grand plot, but it came out nice I think. Soooo, I really hope you guys enjoy this, and keep the review's a-comin'~ I LOVE ALL OF YOOOUUUUU.

...

**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 10: "What Else?"  
**...

The journey home seemed long. Leaving the island that afternoon had been hard enough, neither of them really wanting to return to Berk just yet. But Hiccup insisted that being gone too long wouldn't fare well for him, so Toothless changed form again, and they began their flight home.

They had gotten lucky. Just minutes before Berk came into view, the clouds above them turned dark. Soft, distant thunder rumbled the sky, and the first splashes of raindrops hit them just as they touched down outside of Hiccup's house. Toothless remained still as Hiccup hurriedly removed all of the flying gear, one piece at a time. The boy piled it up and made for the shed, the rain quickly beginning to come down harder.

Inside the shed, he put everything on its respected hooks and shelves. Just as he hung up the last item, the saddle, he heard the shed door close, and felt a strong pair of arms wind around his waist. He yelped at the unexpected touch.

"You're going to give me a heart attack if you keep doing that, you know."

Toothless laughed softly in his ear. "How is it my fault that you are so jumpy?"

Hiccup turned to face him. He realized how dark it was inside the shed when he could barely make out anything of Toothless except for his eyes. He blinked a few times to let his eyes adjust.

"Well it's not entirely my fault either," he countered. "Anyone would be jumpy around you."

Toothless smirked, brought one of his hands up to let a fingernail drag softly from the boy's chin down to his collarbone. "And why is that do you suppose?"

Hiccup swallowed, feeling heat in his face. Toothless' hand returned to his waist, pressing them even closer together. Hiccup brought his own hands up to the dragon's chest, tracing patterns with his fingers. "Oh. You know," he said. "You're so intimidating."

The dragon grinned. "Intimidating, huh?"

Hiccup let out a squeak as Toothless' hand snaked up underneath his tunic, caressing the still rain-chilled skin. Toothless bent, kissing the boy hard on the mouth. Hiccup instinctively shifted backwards, pressing against the wall of the shed. He lifted his arms up and around the dragon's neck, Toothless' own venturing further up the boy's shirt. Toothless lifted his knee, and -

"_Ow!_"

A sharp pain enveloped Hiccup's left leg, causing him to double over and almost fall to the floor. Toothless caught him, his expression frantic. "What's wrong! Are you okay?"

Hiccup breathed heavily into Toothless' arm, waiting for it to pass before speaking. Slowly, the edge of it faded, but there was still a lingering, dull ache. "You bumped my leg, I think," he finally said.

"Oh Hiccup, I am so sorr-"

"You don't need to apologize," Hiccup interrupted. He attempted to find his balance again by pushing off from the dragon. "It's my stupid fault for not taking care of it while we were gone."

Still, Toothless watched him, extremely worried. He knew that the prosthetic was nothing to scoff at.

"I'm probably going to need a new one," Hiccup mentioned idly. He let go of Toothless' arms, and seemed to be standing alright for a moment. But when he tried to take a step, pain seized his limb again and he fell right back into the dragon. Almost instantly, Toothless had the boy in his arms and was carrying him quickly out of the shed and through the rain toward the house.

"Where is a new one?" Toothless asked halfway across the yard.

"Down at the forge," Hiccup said. "And I can walk, you don't have to carry me."

"Do not be foolish. I am not about to let you make it worse."

And that was the end of it. Hiccup knew there was no arguing with him on the matter. Up the steps they went, but they were met with a surprise upon opening the front door.

Sitting at the fireplace was Hiccup's father, who turned to look at the two of them standing in the doorway. All three pairs of eyes stared wide eyed back and forth.

"Dad!" Hiccup squeaked. He hadn't even thought that his dad might've been home. It was still early, he thought for sure he'd still be out in the village somewhere.

"Hiccup?" Stoick, momentarily struck silent at the sight before him, finally found his words. He stood up. "What is going.. where have you _been_? I've been worried for days, and.. what happened? Why is-"

But Toothless decided to ignore the older man and proceeded to walk toward the stairs. Hiccup's eyes went even wider, a little scared of how his father was going to react at this. Stoick certainly looked outraged.

"Dragon!" he shouted. "Where do you think you're going with him?"

Toothless didn't stop, nor did he look back. "To his room."

Hiccup made eye contact with his father over Toothless' shoulder. "Dad, it's alright!" he intervened, his voice desperate. "I just hurt my leg, it's-"

This didn't help. His father's expression became even wilder, and he thundered up the steps after them. This time, Toothless did turn. Well, spun was more like it. Facing the viking, he let out a snarl that shook the stairs, his large wings flapping once, threateningly. Stoick faltered, taking a single step down. Hiccup was about to shout at the both of them, but Toothless turned again and all but shot into Hiccup's bedroom. Once inside, Toothless gently set Hiccup down on his bed and knelt in front of him on the floor.

"Show me how," Toothless requested, his voice just above a whisper.

Hiccup nodded. He bent forward to push up his damp pant leg, revealing where metal met flesh, thick ropes of twine holding them together. The skin there was definitely red. Not a good sign. Toothless looked on at it for a moment, then up at Hiccup.

"Why did you not say anything?"

Hiccup frowned. "It didn't-"

He didn't finish. Stoick had just stepped into view in the doorway. Toothless didn't look over at the man, but his expression was that of annoyance. Hiccup could tell however that his father's demeanor had softened. He still looked angry, but he wasn't about to stomp over and throw Toothless out of the window.

"What happened?" he asked.

Toothless began undoing the twine. "I just.. I didn't take proper care of it while we were gone. It's my fault," he explained.

Stoick brought a hand up and pinched the bridge of his nose. He sighed. "How many times have I told you that you need to be _careful_ with that leg? And why can't you just tell me you're leaving so I don't have to worry so-"

"I'm sorry," Hiccup interjected. Stoick peered at him over his hand. "I should've told you."

Silence fell between them for a moment. The older man sighed again. "It's fine, Hiccup. I was just.. what can I do to help?"

Toothless had just removed the prosthetic, leaning it against the frame of the bed. "Is there any water in the house?" the boy asked.

Stoick nodded. "I just brought some in. It's downstairs, I'll go get it and some washcloths."

"Thanks, Dad."

And with that, he was gone again. Hiccup could easily sense that Toothless had a few choice words at the tip of his tongue, but respectfully held them back. He peered down at his leg.

"I'm still not used to it, you know," he said absentmindedly. Toothless looked up at him. "Not just how it feels, but how it looks. Sometimes I'll look down and completely forget I only have half a leg now. It's.. weird."

There was a pause, then the dragon lifted a hand and rested it on Hiccup's knee. "It is certainly better than how it looked when you first lost it."

Hiccup bit his lip. He knew it was a bad memory for the dragon. He took Toothless' hand into his own and gently squeezed it. He seemed to snap out of it, looking back up at the boy with a small smile.

"But we just need to get you a new one and you will be fine, right?"

"Yeah, it's not that bad, I promise," Hiccup told him. "It felt a little sore today, but I didn't even think anything of it."

Toothless nodded once, then lowered his head to rest on their conjoined hands, little droplets of water falling from his hair. The two of them sat like that in comfortable silence for a bit before they heard the sound of Hiccup's father coming up the steps. Toothless sat up, reluctantly sliding his hand out of Hiccup's.

Stoick entered the room carrying a wooden pail full of water and towels hanging over his arm. Hesitating for a moment, the viking knelt on the floor next to the dragon. He dipped one of the cloths in the water, and was about to ring it out again when Toothless reached over him. The older man froze, staring at the dragon. Hiccup's expression mirrored his father's.

"Can I?" Toothless asked. Neither his expression nor his voice held any resentment. Stoick seemed even more shocked at this, for he didn't say anything for what felt like a while. Hiccup stared between the two of them, waiting for something to happen.

Then, Stoick did something Hiccup never thought he'd ever see him do. He handed the dripping towel to Toothless with a small, accepting nod. Hiccup could hardly believe what he was seeing. His father was actually attempting to be _civil_. It was crazy.. but it made him happy.

Toothless was gentle as he brought the damp cloth to the boy's leg, rubbing here, wiping there. Hiccup glanced at Stoick a few times, who was watching the dragon extremely close. At one point, Hiccup thought he looked puzzled at the sight before him. In the back of his mind he wondered if maybe Toothless was being a little too gentle with his ministrations. Could his father possibly..

No, there was no way he could know.

Once he was satisfied with his cleaning, Toothless dropped the cloth into the pail and reached for the dry one. He brought it up and carefully padded the boy's leg dry.

"Thank you," Hiccup said, breaking the silence. Both Toothless and Stoick looked up at him. He faltered for a second, but then smiled at the dragon, who returned it. He stood up from his spot on the floor.

"I am going to retrieve the new prosthetic."

Hiccup was about to argue, but Toothless held up a hand. "It will be fastest if I go. No one will see me in this rain."

Hiccup frowned, contemplating the situation. "Fine," he surrendered. "Just.. take the cloak, will you? I don't want you running around outside in the rain with no clothes on."

Toothless smiled, nodded, and was out of the room in the blink of an eye. Hiccup's gaze lingered on the doorway for a while. Probably too long, for when he finally looked away, he saw his dad looking a him with a peculiar expression.

"What?" Hiccup quickly blurted.

Stoick said nothing. He stood up and went to stand by the window, his back to his son. Silence rung in the room for a few moments more before the elder man finally spoke. "It's odd," he stated bluntly. A pause, and then, "How much that dragon cares for you."

Hiccup swallowed, suddenly beginning to feel nervous. "R-really? I uh.. well the whole leg thing affects him a lot. He's just.." He hesitated, trying to find the right word. "Protective."

"I guess that's not that surprising," Stoick said. "How he behaved when we returned to Berk after the battle.. it was something to see, really."

Hiccup looked at his father. "What do you mean?"

Stoick turned slightly, looking at Hiccup. "By the time we'd returned on the ships, you'd already been flown here, cleaned up and taken care of. The dra - Toothless, he was on the ships with us, and he was still weak. Barely moved the entire journey back. But the second we docked, he was off the boat and on his way up here."

He paused, looked around the room. "And here he stayed from then until the day you woke up again. Twenty six days."

Hiccup stared wide eyed at his dad. Some overwhelming emotion took over him, something he couldn't identify. It warmed him, tingling in his legs, up to the top of his head. Toothless, he.. Hiccup had never asked after the details of what had gone on while he'd been unconscious. He'd known how long, and obviously the changes that had been made to the village in that time, but no one had ever told him that..

The feeling within him grew more powerful. Somehow, Hiccup found clarity in his and Toothless' new relationship. Suddenly, there were no boundaries. No dragons, no humans, no gender. Toothless loved him so much, even back then, to remain unmoving by Hiccup's side through those weeks. He remembered when he'd woken up to Toothless staring over him, eyes wide and hopeful.. the room empty around the two of them.

But it had always been the two of them, just them. They created a new kind of friendship, battled the Green Death, brought an end to a centuries-old war. Toothless had risked his life to save Hiccup's not just once, but _twice._ With all of that, _what else mattered?_

And suddenly, there was a word for this wonderful, powerful emotion Hiccup was feeling.

It was pride.

"Dad?"

Stoick looked at him.

"I'm in love with him."


	11. Truth Will Out

GUYSGUYSGUYGSGUYSGUYYYYYYYS. I'M STILL HERE AND WRITING _I PROMISE._ I know this took forever and I have no excuses, but I was definitely working on it here and there this whole time. There was just like, one tough scene after another and I got stuck so many different times it was ridiculous. So I hope you guys like this oooone because it really was a challenge for me. I'm just really glad I got it done even though it did take forever D: But really, with how close I am to the end of this, have no doubt that I'll finish this no matter how long it takes. I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU GUYS OUT IN THE COLD. NEVERRRRRR.

...

**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 11: "Truth Will Out"  
**...

Time was at a standstill.

Father and son stared at each other from across the quiet room, completely frozen, neither knowing how to react. Hiccup kept his confidence up, reminding himself repeatedly that if he let it slip for even a second, he wasn't going to win this. He kept his expression as calm as he possibly could. He didn't regret it. How he felt about Toothless wasn't something he could hide forever, and he wasn't ashamed. Scared, yes. His heart pounded loudly against his ribcage, but he kept still.

He'd made the move he'd needed to make. Now it was his father's turn.

But the elder man was not making it easy for Hiccup to hold his stance. His expression was that of utmost incredulity, staring at his son as though he'd sprouted a second head. It seemed like hours before he finally managed to speak.

"_What?_"

Hiccup resisted the urge to slap his hand to his forehead. He took a breath. "Do you.. really need me to repeat that?"

Stoick only continued to gawk at him. "What do you.." He trailed off for a moment, and he suddenly (though not surprisingly) looked angry. "If this is some kind of joke, Hiccup," he stated warningly.

Hiccup mirrored his father's cross expression. "Why in the _world_ would I joke about that?" he demanded, forgetting his calm visage. "Do you hear any laughter coming from me right now?"

"Well what am I supposed to think?" Stoick shouted. "You say something like.. like _that_, and.. Hiccup, this is too.. you can't mean that. You can't."

Hiccup gave his father the most defiant stare he could muster. "I love him."

Stoick opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He looked both furious and defeated at the same time. Everything about the sight before him made Hiccup feel uneasy. Still though, he sat straight and didn't dare break eye contact.

"Where did this even come from?" Stoick asked. "Because of what I just told you?"

"No!" Hiccup shot. "He feels the same way, we've already.."

He stopped, realizing what he'd been about to say. His father's expression became indescribably shocked, his eyes going wider than Hiccup had ever seen them. He felt his face go red with embarrassment.

"We're together," he amended. "I.. want you to know."

In the silent moments that followed his words, Hiccup realized he was shaking. Adrenaline pumped through him, pushing him on. Fear threatened to overwhelm him, but sheer force of will was what kept his shoulders up and face straight.

"This isn't right, Hiccup," Stoick finally said, the volume of his voice decreasing quite a bit. "Even for you, this is.. this is too much. How am I supposed to react to this?"

"It's not like I haven't thought this over a thousand times through," Hiccup told him. "I don't want you to react to this. Not right now, anyway." He paused for a moment, and in a much gentler voice, said, "I just want you to trust me, Dad. I know how I feel, and I know how Toothless feels. I'm not asking for you to accept this right away, but to just trust me."

It seemed like an eternity passed after Hiccup spoke. His father looked even more defeated now, with utter bewilderment thrown in. He wished the older man would say _some_thing, but he supposed he should just be grateful that the conversation hadn't gone worse. Sitting there in awkward silence was better than being screamed at.

Outside, the rain began to slow.

Before Stoick could give his response however, the front door below them slammed opened and slammed shut. The two of them jumped, but remained silent as the sounds of Toothless scurrying up the steps echoed through the house. Not a second later, the dragon was standing in the doorway, dripping wet, the black cloak hanging above his ankles. He held the prosthetic in one arm, wrapped in a thick cloth. Almost instantly, Hiccup could see Toothless sense the tension in the room, that something wasn't right. He hesitated in the doorway, his gaze landing on Hiccup.

Stoick was the first to move, taking a step toward Toothless. Uneasiness rose within Hiccup, and he braced himself on the bed, ready to get up if he needed to. He obviously wouldn't get far on one leg, he knew, but.. he would do something if his dad was going to do anything to Toothless. The dragon also tensed, staring now at the large viking walking toward him.

He stopped only a step away from Toothless, who held his stance, his eyes narrowing. Stoick lifted his hand, and just as Hiccup was about to leap from the bed, that large hand fell onto the dragon's shoulder.

Both Hiccup and Toothless were rendered motionless. Stoick's face held no real expression. He just looked at Toothless for a long while, his hand unmoving, and then he left the room without a word. Neither Toothless nor Hiccup moved as Stoick's footsteps reverberated down the stairs and out of the house.

After a while, Toothless turned his head toward Hiccup. "You.. told him?"

Hiccup was still too surprised to form actual words. So he settled for a nod.

Toothless blinked, his eyes going even wider. "And that was his.."

"Acceptance," Hiccup finished. He nodded again. "Yeah, I think it was."

* * *

Astrid stepped out of her house as the rain finally slowed to a light drizzle. Thunder could still be heard, but off in the distance now, following the thick, dark clouds. She hopped off the last step and looked up as the half moon became visible once more. It was getting late, but she wanted to make sure Skye was okay. The Nadder had an odd thing against storms.

Astrid made her way down her normal path to the dragon houses. Past the twins' home, around the pub, and past the armory stall -

".. didn't even know Hiccup was back!"

She stopped dead in her tracks, her breath catching in her throat. That was Gobber's voice. She turned her head to the left, toward the open window of the stall. She couldn't see anybody, but there was definitely a faint light coming from inside, and two voices talking. But besides that.. Hiccup was back? She hated the way her heart picked up speed at this knowledge, and how she yearned to take just a few steps back and hear a little more of the conversation.

Astrid stood conflicted for a moment, one part telling her to keep moving, that she shouldn't care if Hiccup was back or not. But the other part told her that there was no harm in being curious of the boy's whereabouts. He'd been gone for a few days after all, why not find out where he'd been?

So she gave in. She quietly treaded back toward the stall and stood near the window, far enough away that she wouldn't be spotted.

Stoick's voice was the next thing she heard.

".. less than an hour ago," he said. Astrid noticed now that there was the constant sound of footsteps. Stoick must've been pacing the room.

"So what's got you so riled up?" Gobber asked.

Stoick didn't answer for a long time. Astrid wondered if maybe they were speaking too softly for her to hear, when finally he spoke.

"I'm not even sure I should say anything."

"Are you kidding me? You come down here in this state and you're not going to tell me what in Odin's name happened?" Gobber demanded.

Again it took a while for the chief to say anything. "It's crazy," he said finally, his voice distant. Then he chuckled, but it lacked any and all pleasantness. "I don't even think you'll believe me. Hell! I'm not sure if I do!"

"Stoick," Gobber said firmly. "This isn't like you at all. _Tell me_. You think someone like me with all of my insane stories I tell that I couldn't believe something?"

Astrid took a small step closer to the window, her curiosity at an all time high. The village chief normally remained unshaken by anything and everything. What on Earth had happened with Hiccup to cause him to react this way?

He started to speak, Astrid holding her breath as she listened in.

"Hiccup has just informed me," Stoick began, his voice holding a mock pleasant tone. He stopped to take a breath. "That he and that dragon are having.. _relations_."

Everything stopped. Silence rang like a harsh bell in Astrid's ears as she stood there completely immobile. Her mind spun in so many different directions that she couldn't keep up. The only clear thought and reaction she could grasp onto was _".. What?"_

Which, as it turned out, was the exact same reaction Gobber had. "What.. er.. what do you mean by-"

"_Exactly what I said!_" Stoick barked. There was a loud thud followed by even louder footsteps; he'd abruptly sat up from whatever he'd been sitting in and began to pace the room again. "They're together! Romantically involved! _Whatever you want to call it!_"

"Wha-? Wait.. _what?_" Gobber spluttered. "How is that even-"

The footsteps abruptly stopped, as did Gobber's words. "Okay, okay, I won't ask that question," he said quickly. The footsteps continued. "But.. well, setting aside all of the _obvious_ questions.. what the hell did you do?"

The footsteps stopped again, followed by a short silence. "Nothing," he said, his voice calm now. "I basically told them 'okay' and I left. I didn't know what else to do."

".._ Are_ you okay with it?"

"No!" Stoick barked. "I mean.. I don't know! I shouldn't be, I have a right mind to toss that beast into the ocean, but.. I almost lost Hiccup once already. The last thing I want is to do something that will put that distance between us again."

Gobber never answered, and neither of them said anything for a long time. Astrid remained stock still outside, an unknown thundering in her ears was almost all she could hear.

Finally Stoick spoke once more. "After he lost his leg, I told myself I'd trust him from thereon out, no matter what. I wasn't going to make that mistake again. And tonight, after he told me, all he asked for was my trust. I've never seen such a look on his face." He paused, Astrid heard him take a deep breath. "I don't like it. It's crazy, it's unheard of, I can't see how anything good could come of it, but.. all I can do is trust my son that he knows what's best for himself."

* * *

Hiccup looked over his handiwork with a small nod. "There, it looks good now." He had just finished tying on the new leg with fresh twine. The appendage felt snug against his leg, which was only a little sore now. Toothless, who had been watching him from a spot next to him on the bed, stood up and held out his hands. He now sported a long sleeved tunic and a pair of dark trousers that he'd stolen from Hiccup's wardrobe while the boy had been attaching the new leg.

Hiccup accepted the offer, slipping his own hands in Toothless' and standing up a little shakily.

"Is it still painful?" Toothless asked, obviously still worried.

Hiccup put weight on it and a dull ache blossomed from just above the appendage. He winced. "A little, but it'll be fine. As long as I don't walk on it too much for the rest of the night."

Toothless gently squeezed Hiccup's hands. A moment passed. "You are still shaking," he said idly.

Hiccup chuckled. "Yeah. I'm still a little freaked out."

"I still cannot believe that you told him."

"Me neither. I can't believe he didn't murder the both of us!"

Toothless laughed this time. "Well I.. am very glad that you told him, Hiccup," he said, a smile bright on his face. "It means far more to me than I can tell you right now."

Hiccup smiled, his emerald eyes shining. He lifted their conjoined hands and laced their fingers together. Toothless leaned down so that their foreheads touched. They stood like that for a little while, enjoying the silence and peace of each other s presence.

Until there was a knock on the front door.

Toothless sighed. "Must this always happen?" he asked, sarcasm thick in his tone.

"Apparently," Hiccup responded with equal enthusiasm. They separated and Hiccup unwillingly made for the door. "You stay here. Hopefully I'll be back in a minute."

Toothless said nothing but obediently took a seat on the bed. Hiccup left the room and made his way (carefully) down the stairs. He wondered momentarily who on Berk could be knocking at this hour, and was answered with the last person he wanted to see.

"Astrid!" he choked. He immediately realized this was a very rude greeting and composed himself. He tried to smile but had a feeling he was failing miserably. "I mean, er.. h-hey. How are.. you?"

He faltered. He just now noticed the expression on her face. She looked absolutely distraught.

"Hiccup," he whispered. "I.. I know this is really.. but I need to know something."

He swallowed, beginning to feel nervous. "I uh, sure. Of course."

There was a long pause, and finally in a small voice that was ill fitting of the girl, she asked, "Why did you break up with me?"

The panic that bubbled up inside Hiccup was instantaneous. He took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. He'd known he'd have to talk to her about it someday, and he couldn't let himself be frightened of it.

Astrid took his silence badly however, and before she could think about it or even stop herself, she blurted out what she'd been holding back since he'd opened the door.

"Was it because of_ him?_"

Hiccup's eyes went wide and he visibly stiffened. She took his reaction as the confirmation she needed and she had no idea whether to feel angrier or more upset.

"I.. uh. Who?"

Hiccup regretted his answer the moment it fell from his lips. He didn't know how, but Astrid knew, and the last thing he needed to do was try and lie about it.

"Please don't lie to me right now, Hiccup," she said, her gaze falling to the floor. She took a step across the threshold. "I just.. I need to know you didn't leave_ me_ for that.. _thing_."

Defensiveness rose up inside of him. He looked crossly at her and stated firmly, "I didn't."

"_I said don't lie to me!_"

Hiccup was unprepared for the sharp slap that struck his face. He stumbled backward, but kept his balance. His hand instinctively lifted to touch his now stinging cheek. He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, there was a blur of black and a small yelp from Astrid. Toothless now stood between the two like a black curtain, his wings outstretched to shield the boy standing behind him.

"Toothless!" he gasped, the sudden appearance startling him. "I'm fine, you don't need to -"

"She struck you," he interjected, his voice thick with anger.

Hiccup placed a hand to the spot between his wings. "Please," he said calmly. "I can handle this, I'm okay."

It took a few seconds, but Toothless complied by slowly folding in his wings. He could see Astrid once again, and now saw the stricken look on her face.

Hiccup took a breath. "I'm _not_ lying," he told her in a firm tone. She stared at him, half wanting to believe him just by the look on his face alone, but..

"But I overheard your father!" she argued. "He told Gobber that you.. and him.." She trailed off, her voice shaking in a threat to betray her anger.

Needless to say this surprised Hiccup. His dad had gone off and told Gobber? He would've been a little more than annoyed by this under normal circumstances, but that was an issue for a later date. He stepped in front of Toothless.

"It's true," he said. "Toothless and I are, well, together."

She visibly flinched. It was strange how many emotions he was watching her deal with just in the last few minutes. Hurt, anger, sadness, desperation. He'd never seen her in such a state and it was worrying him to say the least. Astrid opened her mouth to say something, but he continued before she could.

"But that's _not_ why I broke up with you. Astrid, you know we started becoming distant with each other weeks - months ago. You can't tell me you didn't notice."

Somehow, this seemed to calm her down. She was looking on at him with a somewhat lost expression, appearing as though she wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. Hiccup kept going, keeping the same mindset he'd had with his father just a short while ago. He needed to keep his head up if either of them were going to get through this. It was odd, he thought, how he was suddenly the stronger one between the two of them.

"To be honest," he continued. "I should've ended it a lot sooner than I did. Maybe things wouldn't be as bad as they are now."

Astrid looked a little hurt at these words, but she patiently took them in. Her gaze fell to the floor as she wrapped her arms around herself. Hiccup took a few steps toward her.

"I'm.. sorry that you had to find out about Toothless and I this way," he said softly. "And I'm sorry I let things go as far as they did. That's.. about all I can say, Astrid."

Nothing was said for a long time after this. No one moved, no one spoke. Slowly though, Astrid seemed to gain back her strength. She dropped her arms to her side and looked Hiccup square in the eyes.

"It's not just your fault," she said, her voice a little rough. "I.. I did notice that you were distant with me, but I chose to ignore it. I guess I just hoped that.. we'd work it out." She shrugged her shoulders at her confession.

"I'm sorry for.. barging in here and freaking out," she added, her ears going a little red. "Seriously, I just.. I feel so stupid now, but it's just.." She hesitated for a moment, her eyes flickering to Toothless for less than a second. "It's a lot to take in.. you know?"

Hiccup nodded. "I know."

She bit her lip and took a step forward so they were directly in front of one another. She reached out her hand to his face, her finger tips inches away from the spot where she'd hit him. But she recoiled, pulling her hand back again and instead shyly tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry I slapped you."

Hiccup smiled. "Ah, it's alright. Nothing you haven't dealt me before."

A small laugh escaped her, and suddenly, the entire room felt much lighter. "I want to talk about this some more with you someday," she told him. "But for now I need time to.. to get over it."

He nodded. "I understand."

She gave him a tiny smile and began to walk backwards toward the door. She lifted a hand and waved. "Until then," she said.

"Yeah," was the only thing he could think to say.

And with that, she was gone.


	12. A New Horizon

Guys. **Guys. _GUYS. _**

This is it o-o This story is every kind of finished you could imagine, complete with wrapping paper and a bow. I.. it's a huge thing for me because this is the first chaptered fic I've ever finished. Ever. I HAVE A LOT OF EMOTIONS RIGHT NOW AND I'M NOT SURE HOW TO HANDLE THEM BUT. I'm so happy to finally finish this for you lovely people. Oh and it's a motherfucker of a chapter too. Triple the length of my other chapters AND THREE PAGES OF EXPLICIT SEX. So be warned on that, BUT BE HAPPY AS WELL. It's there because I love you all and for sticking with this for so long. Okay I'm gonna shut up now until the end of the chapter.

...

**"Seasons May Change"**

**.**

**Chapter 12: "A New Horizon"  
**...

There was a ringing silence in the room left behind the shutting of the front door, the fire crackling in the fireplace the only thing that disturbed it. Hiccup didn't know how long he stood there, feeling much the same as he did when his father had left the house not all that long ago.

It was then that it hit him what had just occurred in just a short amount of time. He wavered, noticed an ache in his leg, and moved to sit down on one of the chairs against the wall.

Both his father _and_ Astrid knew now. He couldn't believe he'd had the courage to face the both of them, and in one night. He breathed a deep breath and slowly let it back out, trying to wrap his head around it all. Things seemed all right now, but what about tomorrow? What about a week from now? The information would surely spread at some point, and then-

"Hiccup?"

The boy jumped. Toothless had somehow moved from one side of the room to kneeling on the floor in front of him without him even noticing. He was staring up at the boy with concerned eyes. Hiccup wanted to say he was fine and not to worry, but for some reason, the words wouldn't come. He wanted to smile, but his mouth remained still. His silence concerned the dragon even more, who opened his mouth to say something before Hiccup all but fell into him from his spot on the chair. The two almost fell backward to the floor, but Toothless barely held them back up as Hiccup all but buried his face in his partner's chest, clutching fistfuls of his tunic in his hands.

Toothless stared down at him in surprise. Hiccup made no sounds or movement, so was unsure for a few moments of what to do. In the end, he gently brought his arms around the boy, moving his hands in small, circular motions on his back. He wanted to say something, anything, but thought it best to remain quiet. They stayed like that for quite a while.

"I'm alright," Hiccup said at last, his voice muffled slightly by Toothless' shirt. He slowly sat himself up and away from the dragon. "I don't know, I just.. needed to take it all in."

Toothless nodded, but still looked worried. Hiccup managed a small smile. "I'm fine, I promise. A little tired, but fine." He moved to get up, and Toothless was on his feet in one swift movement, holding out his hands to assist the boy with his leg. Hiccup gladly took the help as he didn't trust his leg quite yet.

Once he was standing fine on his own, Hiccup said, "I think I'm gonna go to bed."

"I'll go with you," Toothless said with a nod. A second passed and Hiccup smiled as he realized something.

"We can actually share my bed now," he stated. "Now that my Dad knows. If he sees us then that's his own problem."

Toothless chucked, seemingly happy with this prospect, and then without even asking, hoisted Hiccup into his arms and carried him up the stairs.

Once inside the room, Toothless closed the door behind him with his foot. The moment it shut however, Hiccup suddenly had an odd feeling hit him square in the stomach. It was absolutely stupid, considering how much they'd already done together, yet somehow with Toothless holding him, and the thought of them sharing an actual bed together had him blushing. For some reason, this made things seem "official", for lack of a better term.

"I'm such an idiot," Hiccup said under his breath without thinking. Toothless blinked down at him in inquiry, but Hiccup just blushed even more and said it was nothing.

Toothless slid Hiccup from his hold just in front of the bed so that he was standing in front of him. "Do you ah, need help with the shirt?" he asked the dragon, feeling his face burn even hotter.

It proved a difficult task. Hiccup had only just noticed that Toothless had managed to tear the back of the tunic up pretty good in order to get the thing comfortably over his wings. He made a mental note that it was a good thing Toothless had chosen one of his older pieces of clothing to ruin.

"I'm gonna have to make you some shirts that tie up the back or something," he said with a small hint of amusement. Toothless laughed, but said nothing, and after about a minute or so of tugging this way and that, the clothing item finally came off.

Now, Hiccup had seen Toothless in his humanoid form without clothing quite a few times by now. However, he realized, he'd never _un_dressed him, and for reasons he couldn't even begin to understand, his body was reacting in such a way that made him feel both giddy and nervous at the same time. He cursed his hormones.

"Would you.. take mine off for me?"

The question slipped from his mouth before he could even think it over, and he felt incredibly stupid for all of two seconds before he saw the look on Toothless' face. The dragon looked at him, at first surprised, then sort of mesmerized. Slowly, he reached out to grab hold of the bottom of Hiccup's shirt and pulled up. Hiccup raised his arms as Toothless slid it off with ease. The shirt fell to the floor without either of them really noticing.

"I could not say it last night," Toothless began, his eyes glancing up and down Hiccup's body. "But you truly are beautiful."

Hiccup thought his head might explode at this. He tried to laugh it off but the noise that escaped from him was somewhere between a high pitched giggle and a snort. Which embarrassed him even further. "I am not," he finally managed out, his gaze suddenly locked on the floor. Toothless placed a finger underneath the boy's chin and directed his gaze back to him.

"You are far too modest," he said.

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "No, you're just biased."

"Even if I was, that would not make it any less true," was the dragon's reply, a cheeky smile appearing on his face. He didn't say anything else after that, instead leaning in and kissing Hiccup on the mouth. The sparks Hiccup felt that bounced around his insides were normal to him by now, yet just as amazing as ever.

When they pulled apart, Hiccup sat himself on the bed and slid himself over to the opposite side, beckoning Toothless to the spot next to him. Toothless more than gladly took the invitation, and hopped into the bed after him. The two of them laughed as they shifted around, trying to get comfortable. Once they were settled in underneath a number of wool blankets, the pair went silent and still.

"Are you sure you are alright?" Toothless asked quietly.

Hiccup didn't say anything for a little while, unsure of what to say. He searched under the blankets for Toothless' hands, and when he found them, pressed them between his own. "I'm.. just a little scared," he finally said. "I'm glad that Dad and Astrid know, it's nice to have it off of my shoulders, but.. I just tend to be pessimistic."

Toothless looked at him. "You.. are frightened of what will come of them knowing?"

"Kind of," Hiccup said. "Chances are nothing _bad_ will happen, though. I'm being panicky. I just don't want anything bad to happen that would come between us."

Toothless' expression suddenly became very stern. "I will not let anything come between us."

"I won't either," Hiccup responded without missing a beat. He meant it with every fiber of his being. "I just don't want it to have to come down to that."

He released Toothless' hands and inched forward so that he could wrap his arms around his partner's waist, burying his face in his chest as he did so. "I care about this village and everyone in it," Hiccup began, his voice quiet in the dark of the room. "I have a duty as the next chief.. I love my Dad, my friends, Gobber. But I told you once that I'm fine as long as I have you, and I meant it. I guess it's selfish of me, but you mean more to me than all of that put together. I'd do anything to keep from losing the people I care about here, but.. if they come between you and I, then it'll be just us."

Toothless was silent for a long time. For a little while, Hiccup wondered if he'd gone to sleep before finally the dragon put his hands on his shoulders and put just enough distance between them so he could look the boy in the eye. Hiccup was a little surprised to see a rather troubled expression on his face.

"I do not want you to give all of that up for me."

Hiccup stared up at him for a while, a little dumbfounded. All he could think of to say was, "I would, though." As if it were the plainest knowledge in all of the world. This didn't look as though it pleased Toothless however.

"You have too many people here who care for you, and your responsibility as the next leader is too great to abandon."

Again, Hiccup didn't know what to say. He knew what he felt, but there was hardly a rational way to explain it. He understood where Toothless was coming from, but.. "But I'd have you," he answered simply. "Being with you means more happiness to me than anything on this island."

"What about everyone else?"

What about them?"

Toothless gave Hiccup a half-hearted glare. "That is incredibly selfish, Hiccup."

"I said it was selfish," he retorted. "Being in love means being selfish pretty often, if you haven't already noticed."

Toothless just looked on at the boy for a while, his expression slowly softening. He let out a sigh. "You know I just want you to be happy, right?"

Hiccup smiled and brought a hand to the dragon's face. "Of course I do." He pushed himself up a tiny bit to press his lips to Toothless' in a quick kiss. "But now you know that my happiness is you."

The dragon's eyes went wide, and realizing he could no longer argue, he smiled, his large eyes glowing. He wound his arms around the Hiccup's middle, bringing him closer, and pressing their lips together once more.

Hiccup instantly moved even nearer so the two of them were pressed flush against one another. He could barely ascertain how wonderful the natural heat of Toothless' bare skin felt against his own. Longing to be even closer, Hiccup deepened the kiss, unable to suppress the quiet moan that escaped him the moment that forked tongue meshed with his own. From there, it didn't take long for their touches to turn to fire on each other's skin, their movements needier and more desperate. Toothless abandoned Hiccup's mouth, taking to leaving sloppy kisses and light nips on the boy's neck and bare shoulders. Hiccup's hands instinctively pressed the dragon harder against him.

Toothless continued further, his mouth all but mapping out Hiccup's body. Down to the collarbone, across his chest, and topped it off by slowly dragging his tongue from his navel and back up again. Hiccup gave small, feeble pushes on Toothless' shoulders, a request for him to go lower. But he wouldn't do that quite yet. Hiccup whined, but it was stifled by Toothless' mouth back on his own.

'_Two __can __play __at __that __game,_' Hiccup thought devilishly, and made his move. Lifting his good leg, his knee automatically found its way between the dragon's legs. Toothless gasped sharply into the kiss, his head snapping back from Hiccup's to stare at him. He moved his knee just slightly, but it was more than enough. Toothless visibly began to melt above him, his eyes that had shone with surprise not seconds ago now clouding over with lust. Hiccup continued moving his leg in small increments, loving how the dragon was reacting.

Suddenly then, Toothless brought himself back to Earth, making a quick movement to still the boy's leg with his hand. There was a single moment where neither of them moved before Toothless swooped down. He swung his leg over the boy's hips and caught his wrists in his hands, pinning him to the bed. He bent down so that his lips ghosted against Hiccup's ear, his breath hot. "I want you badly, Hiccup."

It was funny how Hiccup's body reacted to those words. He swore the heat between them increased, and he finally reached the point where his brain no longer worked. Pure desire fueled every action from now on.

"So take me then," he breathed, not recognizing the voice that came from his own mouth.

Toothless faltered, remaining in his doubled over position for just a second, before sitting up. He released Hiccup's wrists and lifted himself off of him and onto his knees so he could have better access to the waistband of his trousers. He began to slide them from the boy's hips, and being mindful of the metal appendage, eventually rid of the clothing item entirely. He couldn't help but stop for a few seconds to stare, which Hiccup noticed and blushed hard. He quickly sat up and reached for the last piece of clothing that stood between them.

Like the shirt, the trousers ended up a torn mess. Hiccup thought for a moment that he probably could've removed them without tearing them too much, but that would've taken time. Time that he'd much rather spend doing other things. So the pants now lay in an undeterminable pile at the foot of the bed.

Toothless moved his hands to the boy's shoulders and pushed him gently back onto the bed. Hiccup made a noise in protest.

"Lie back," Toothless told him. "I do not want you putting any accidental strain on your leg."

Hiccup looked as if he were about to complain, but stopped himself. He smiled and lay back as told. Toothless positioned himself between his legs, steadying himself with his hands on either side of his hips. He leaned down, nuzzling Hiccup's belly with his nose and tracing circles around his navel with his tongue. Lower and lower he went at an excruciatingly slow pace, until finally..

"A-aah!" Hiccup cried out as Toothless' tongue finally found his manhood. He tried to buck his hips, but the dragon held him firmly against the bed, continuing his ministrations without faltering. He started with short licks that evolved into him running his tongue slowly from base to tip.

Hiccup couldn't believe how good it felt. Toothless' tongue felt ten times hotter on his member than it had anywhere else on his body. He was sure he was going mad from the pleasure, and just when he thought he'd never feel anything better than this, Toothless took his entire length into his mouth. Hiccup emitted a noise he couldn't make again if he'd tried, for the heat that encased him was unlike anything he could have imagined. He could only watch with an odd sense of detachment as Toothless' head bobbed up and down between his legs, the sight of which, combined with how it felt was sending him dangerously close to the edge.

"Toothless," he managed out with great effort. "S-stop. I'm gonna.. I'm really close."

But Toothless didn't, and as if in response to the boy's plea, he quickened his pace, bringing in one of his hands to work the base of his cock.

At this, Hiccup couldn't even remember to care. About anything. A thick fog clouded his entire mind and he could register nothing but the indescribable amount of please he was feeling. His hands moved on their own, fingers tangling in midnight-black hair in an attempt to keep himself anchored to reality.

Then everything came to a crashing halt. His body seized and he was coming hard into the dragon's mouth. Toothless held his body firm against the bed as it writhed violently against him. He slowed his ministrations on Hiccup's length second by second, riding out the last of the tremors until the boy lay still once more.

Hiccup waited to catch his breath before laughing. "And to think you've never even done that before," he said, as he sat up to look down at his partner.

Toothless smirked. "I take it it was good, then?"

Hiccup laughed again. "That.. don't even ask that. That was _amazing_."

Toothless took the compliment with a wide grin. He licked his lips. "You are delicious, by the way," he stated offhandedly, obviously obtaining amusement from the look on Hiccup's face at his words. The dragon moved forward until their mouth's were just centimeters apart.

"Want to taste?"

This time Hiccup truly thought his head _would_ explode. It was baffling to him how a dragon who was still learning human mannerisms was so damn good at getting him riled up. He had no idea why, and would surely look back on it with embarrassment in retrospect, but there, now, that one simple question turned him on like no other. A second passed before Hiccup all but threw himself into the dragon, crushing their mouths together with a newfound ferocity. It felt like no time had passed at all before needy desire took over his body once more.

As if sensing this, Toothless pushed Hiccup back onto the bad again, breaking the kiss as he did so. He wasted no time shifting his position, his own cock now pressing at Hiccup's entrance. Their eyes met once in consent, and he pushed inside.

There was a mutual gasp between them. Toothless was less than halfway in, but he stopped to make sure Hiccup was all right. The brunette let out a long breath, then chuckled. "I'm fine," he told him. "Incase you forgot, you were double this size last night."

Toothless emitted a small laugh as well. "Right," he concurred. So, he braced himself, then pushed the rest of the way in until their hips met. Toothless paused, letting out a long breath before slowly pulling out again. Eventually he found a slow, steady rhythm. "Is it any less pleasurable to you with me like this?"

Hiccup wanted to laugh, but his profound lack of a steady breathing pattern preventing him from doing so. "Gods no," he gasped out. "No, you.. I'm more than happy with this. But.. if you could go a little faster I wouldn't complai - ahhn!"

Toothless did as requested and picked up the pace. Hiccup reached out and held tightly onto the dragon's forearms as that odd sort of pleasure began to pool within him with each thrust. The sensation of the dragon's length inside of him, hitting _that __spot_ was still so new to him. He loved it, couldn't get enough. Above him, he could see Toothless' muscles twitching underneath his gleaming, onyx skin. Sharp, white teeth chewing on his bottom lip. The loud purring that vibrated through the both of them and the soft whines that escaped his throat.

He was beautiful, Hiccup thought as he was suddenly overcome with affection. He was one with Toothless in this moment, two halves completing each other in mutual rhythm. They moved together, breathed together, and

Toothless melted, falling into Hiccup and he thrusted faster and faster. Hiccup wound his arms as tightly as he could around his lover's shoulders, pressing their bodies together. He buried his face in the dragon's neck, unable to keep himself quiet any longer. They were both close, he knew. He could feel it. Toothless' name fell from his lips over and over and he couldn't stop it.

"Hiccup," the dragon moaned. "My Hiccup."

Hiccup wanted to tell him that he loved him. He wanted to yell it, shout it as loud as he could, but in that instant, his voice stopped working. Everything did. His body arched into his lover's above him as he reached climax for the second time that night. His fingernails dug hard into Toothless' shoulders as a silent scream tore at his throat. Toothless came a moment later, filling him with pure, liquid heat. The feel of it on top of his own orgasm drove Hiccup insane. His entire body was pulsing, Toothless thrusting slowly in and out of him in time with it. They clung hard to one another, riding out the waves together. In unison.

Slowly. Very slowly they came back down from their euphoria. Their grips on each other loosened, breathing began to even out, and the world reappeared around them. Hiccup didn't even notice that Toothless was lying on top of him until the dragon clumsily rolled off of him and into the empty space on the bed beside him. Their eyes met in a half-lidded gaze.

"I love you," Hiccup breathed. "I love you so much."

Toothless smiled sweetly. He sat up just far enough that he could reach the blankets that had been kicked away and tugged them overtop the both of them. He pulled the boy close and planted a kiss to his sweat-slicked forehead.

"And I you, _Óst __min_. More than there are stars in the sky."

* * *

The first thing Hiccup's mind registered was the sound of crashing waves. He looked to his left and saw a familiar expanse of ocean before him, just past the beach, which glowed almost blue in the moonlight. He looked to his right to a vast cliff that he knew held Berk high above him.

He walked forward. Odd, he thought, how he suddenly didn't have any trouble at all walking with his metal leg in the sand now. He didn't think anymore of it though, and peacefully continued his trek down the shoreline. He made his way around a corner of the island, and now able to see quite a ways down the beach, he thought he saw something. Or more like someone standing in the distance. He walked closer, wanting to know who it was.

It wasn't long before it became the answer became obvious.

The figure ahead of him became clearer, and he could now make out a long tail and large wings. Hiccup smiled and began walking faster. Once he was within fifty steps of him, Toothless turned his head to look at him. He also smiled and took a few steps forward to meet the boy halfway. Toothless held a single hand out, which Hiccup gladly took.

"Come on," Toothless said softly. He turned and led Hiccup in the other direction. They walked for what felt like a while, but Hiccup didn't mind. When they finally did come to a halt, Hiccup realized that they were near the side of the island where the ships were docked. He could see their many silhouettes in the distance.

"This is where your father and the others found me that night," Toothless told him. Hiccup looked at him, rather surprised. "I do not remember much from when I appeared here to the next day when I took this form. Well, with the exception of a particularly nice, yet fuzzy memory of you lying next to me through the night."

Toothless' smile grew as he spoke. Hiccup recalled the night in his mind as well, a smile appearing on his face as well. "I was so happy that night," he said idly, mostly to himself. Toothless looked at him. He blushed, feeling a little silly, but he continued. "I was just so glad you came back to me, that you okay."

The dragon turned the face him and cupped his face with his free hand. "I'm sorry, Hiccup."

The boy raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm sorry for all of the trouble, worry, and confusion this entire ordeal has caused you."

Hiccup emitted a quiet laugh. "Are you kidding? Everything you've done since the day I found you in the woods has made my life better, more fun, more interesting. All that we've been through, including this.. I couldn't regret it if I wanted to. Don't be sorry, because I'm not."

"Even though I almost had you banished from your village and nearly killed?" Toothless asked, but there was a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

Hiccup grinned. "It was worth it."

Toothless smiled as well. He leaned down to plant a swift kiss to the teenager's mouth and pulled away again. He led Hiccup forward a bit to where ocean met land, stopping just before their feet touched the water.

Then, as if on queue, the water about ten feet away from them began to glow. Hiccup stared at it, wide-eyed, having never seen anything like it before. He watched as it slowly rose out of the water and glided toward them, stopping just a few feet before them. The light had taken shape, a sort of fuzzy outline of a human figure. It never did become any clearer than that, and Hiccup noticed almost immediately that even though the light was rather bright, it didn't hurt his eyes and he didn't have to squint at all to look directly into it.

"We meet again, dragon," came a soft, female voice from the light. Hiccup went rigid, almost taking a step backwards in alarm but prevented himself from doing so. Out of the corner of his vision he saw Toothless give a firm nod.

"Your trial has ended," it spoke again. "And the time has come for me to deal my judgement."

'_Oh,_' Hiccup thought. He suddenly felt sick as he realized what exactly was happening. Toothless must have noticed his distress for he gave a squeeze to the boy's hand and gently caressed his palm with his thumb.

"We are ready," Toothless said, his tone unwavering. Hiccup swallowed, attempting to calm down.

Silence followed for what felt like a long time, and then, "I have aided many a pair for longer than either of your minds could fathom. I have seen many things. You two however have been the strangest. You will recall, dragon, that it took you quite some time to convince me to help you."

Again, Toothless nodded. The voice continued.

"The trial set was that the boy must prove his affection was not based on the transformation alone. I admit it was intentionally cruel, for I did not think it was possible. The boy would fail, and you would realize how foolish you were for wasting my time."

Hiccup didn't know how to feel at this. His face grew hot as anger bubbled up within him, but he didn't dare move or speak.

"However," she said, her voice softer now. "The boy's behavior on the first night was enough to make me think I might be wrong, and so I was. Hiccup."

"Y-yes?" he fumbled.

"I am sure you have already ascertained most of what you were being judged for. You first had to state your love unbiased, and then you had to prove it so. The last test was for you to prove that you were not ashamed of your love."

Hiccup's mind spun with this information. He said nothing in fear that he would say something stupid or irrelevant.

"Astoundingly, you passed them all."

An immense weight flew from his shoulders at these words. He couldn't help but smile as he inwardly let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you," was all he could think of to say, and he prayed it was a good enough answer.

"So, dragon, as promised, you may choose to stay in this form if you so wish."

This surprised Hiccup. He immediately turned to look at Toothless, who was already facing him with a smile. "It was what I asked for when I believed you would not love my original form," he explained. "I know now how foolish that was of me, but.. I wish to know what you want."

Hiccup could barely take this all in. He stared at his partner before him, a thousand thoughts running through his mind when he needed to speak only one. "I want.. whatever makes you the happiest," he said. "Either way I'm perfectly fine. To me, you're still you no matter what, and that's all I care about."

Toothless looked thoughtful at this, his eyes drifting down to the sand. "I want to remain in this form," he finally said, looking back up at Hiccup. "Before all of this.. it hurt to not be able to tell you how I felt. But like this I can hold your hand, wrap my arms around you, tell you how much I love you as many times as I want."

Hiccup blushed and was unable to suppress the embarrassed chuckle that rose in his throat. "A-are you sure?"

Toothless looked at him for a long moment, his expression that of the utmost happiness. "I am," he said. Then he turned back to the goddess whom had remained silent during their exchange. "I wish to remain in this form."

"Very well," she said. "All I request now is the payment we agreed on."

Hiccup froze. He stared at Toothless, who suddenly seemed hesitant to meet his eyes.

"In exchange for her help," he began, his voice faltering. "I agreed to give up my wings."

For a while, Hiccup was unable to process this in his mind. He repeated Toothless' words over and over again in his head, at first not wanting to accept them, then it evolved into full out denial.

"No," he said firmly. "No, you can't do that."

Toothless gave him a rather helpless look. "There is nothing to be done about it now," he told him, putting his hands on his shoulders.

Desperate, Hiccup turned to look back at the light. "What if I gave something instead?" he blurted.

"You could," the goddess said, sounding thoughtful. "It would be a heavy price, however."

"Hiccup, stop!" Toothless shouted, startling the boy. His gaze snapped back to his partner. "I have already thought this through. It was my decision and not your burden to bare."

"But.." Hiccup gaped, at a loss for words. "Your wings are who you are, how can you just give them up like that?"

Toothless stared at him. "Hiccup, I would not be able to fly in this form anyway. Besides-,"

"I could've made something."

"_Besides_," Toothless pressed. "I am not just giving them up. It is a payment I will gladly hand over for having been given the chance at a life with you."

"I don't want you to give up that much for me," Hiccup persisted, his voice strained with emotion.

Toothless smiled. He moved his hands to cup the boy's face. "Did we not have this conversation just last night?"

Hiccup realized immediately what he was talking about, only the conversation was switched around this time. He didn't want to accept it, but it would only make him look incredibly stupid if he continued to argue. He said nothing.

"You are more important to me than the sky itself," Toothless said to him. "I cannot deny that I will miss my original form, my wings, flying.. but being with you like this means more to me than anything else."

They looked at each other for a long time. Hiccup felt tears begin to form, but he stubbornly blinked them back. He didn't know what to say, how to properly express the overwhelming affection that had taken over him. All he could think to do was fall forward into the dragon and wrap his arms around him as tightly as he could. Warm arms wound around his shoulders almost immediately and he felt Toothless kiss the top of his head.

A light consumed them, then. A little startled, Hiccup hid his face in the dragon's chest and clung to him even harder. The light remained, bright and blinding, for a long time.

And then,

Everything faded to black.

* * *

He awoke in the same place. Or, so he'd through at first. His forehead was pressed against something warm, his arms wrapped loosely around it as well. Toothless. It wasn't until a few seconds had passed did he realize the differences. Like how the sound of the ocean was gone, and the more obvious one being that they weren't standing on the beach, but lying down. In his bed.

Hiccup's eyes snapped open, confusion washing over him. He pulled away from Toothless and sat up on his elbow, looking around. They were definitely in his room. So.. it had been a dream? He looked down at Toothless, and

_No._

His wings were gone.

Hiccup couldn't move. He didn't know how long he sat there, gaping helplessly at the dragon sleeping soundly beside him. Then all of a sudden, a wave of emotion crashed into him and he had to remind himself to breathe. He wanted to reach out and wake his partner, tell him how much of an idiot he was and how could he do that to himself just for him, but his body wasn't working.

He looked away. The sight of Toothless without his wings was too odd. It made his stomach feel as thought someone had kicked it. Hard. Hiccup put a hand over his face and the sob that escaped his throat came without warning. Another followed, and soon he couldn't stop himself. He tried to calm himself down, but he could not stop his mind from recalling the dream - whatever it had been - the words Toothless had spoken to him, and what he'd given up.

It wasn't surprising when the dragon began to stir, as the boy's crying wasn't exactly quiet. He hated himself a little for acting this way but it just wouldn't stop.

"Hiccup?"

He peeked out from behind his hand to see Toothless looking up at him, a little tiredly at first, but once he realized, he sat up looking rather alarmed.

"What's wrong?" he asked calmly, green eyes wide. He pushed Hiccup's hand away from his face, replacing it with both of his own. He wiped what tears he could away with his thumbs. He repeated Hiccup's name one more time before he could finally calm down enough to properly speak.

As he opened his mouth however, he realized he had no idea what to say. Even he didn't know exactly why he was crying. There were a million different reasons it seemed. "You.. y-your wings," was all he got out before choking up again.

It was Toothless' turn to not know what to say now. Several emotions passed over his face, his mouth opened once or twice, but he finally decided on silence. Hiccup took a breath.

"I'm s-so.. mad at you," he pushed out. "I hate that you did that for m-me."

Toothless looked a little distressed now. "Hiccup, I-"

"But I'm happy too," Hiccup interrupted. "I am.. I can't tell you how happy, how loved it makes me feel to know that you made such a sacrifice. Which, in turn, makes me feel guilty for thinking that way. It's just a big stupid circle of emotions I'm going through right now, I'm sorry."

Neither of them made a sound for a moment before they both let out soft laughter. Toothless inched forward on the bed and pulled the boy into his arms. Hiccup gladly accepted the gesture, craving the dragon's warmth like it was oxygen.

"Please do not ever feel badly about this," Toothless said after a while. "I made the choice, which I admit was a bit rash at the time, but now.. I have you now. The endless skies, flight, freedom.. I do not need any of that as long as I have you by my side."

Hiccup recalled a night not too long ago when he'd said something similar to the dragon. With a small smile, he repeated Toothless' own words,

"You'll always have me."

* * *

That day, Hiccup decided to finally take Toothless into the village. He was nervous, but not scared out of his mind as he'd once been at the idea. Toothless wasn't scared at all, but just worrisome for Hiccup's sake. They set off down the hill when the sun was high over the island.

Coincidentally, the first person they ran into was Gobber, who did an odd sort of double take when he saw them. Then he chuckled. "Well, dragon," he said. "I haven't seen you since our little tussle in the mess hall!"

Toothless smiled. "Indeed," he replied. Gobber's eyes widened a little at this, Hiccup assuming it was because of the fact that Toothless had just answered him. But Gobber shook his head and slapped the dragon on the shoulder.

"You best take care of this talkin' fishbone here," he told him. Hiccup couldn't help but laugh, but he felt a little embarrassed at the same time.

"Of course I will," Toothless said with a grin. Hiccup glared at him for a second before turning to Gobber.

"I heard my Dad talked to you," he said. Gobber nodded.

"He did. And best of luck to the both of you, because I know he's certainly not done with you. Be prepared for day's worth of speeches from him."

"Speeches I can handle," Hiccup replied with a small laugh.

"True enough," Gobber said. "But I've got to get back down to the stall. I'll see you two around."

Once he was gone, Hiccup let out a sigh of relief.

"That went well," Toothless stated idly.

"Yeah, and let's just hope that'll be a trend for us today."

They didn't see anyone else until they made their way into the village square, where a lot of people noticed them at once. Hiccup kept his head up and kept walking. The people there had different reactions. Some kept their distance and decided to shout to Hiccup _what __was __that __thing_, while others ran up to them demanding an explanation. A few thought Toothless was a new species of dragon. He was a little overwhelmed at first, but he explained to them as calmly as he could. He didn't give them all the details of course, but just that, by choice of the gods, Toothless had taken on and would remain in this form.

The two of them repeated this many, many times throughout the afternoon. Every person or group of people they came across it was the same thing. Most of the people he'd managed to tell this to didn't make much of a reaction. He could tell they all thought it was extremely odd, but past voicing said opinion, walked off and continued about their day. There was only a small handful who seemed truly alarmed that Hiccup had to try hard to convince them that Toothless wasn't some kind of terrible omen or demon.

He told no one of the nature of their relationship. He thought it would be too blunt to just mention like it was nothing, so he hoped that their clasped hands were enough to signal the truth.

Somewhere in the middle of all of this he found the twins and Fishlegs tending to their dragons at their stalls. They all stopped and watched as Toothless and Hiccup made their way closer, still hand in hand. Ruffnut stepped forward with her hands on her hips.

"Astrid already told me," she said.

Hiccup started. "Did she?"

Tuffnut took a step closer as well, thought not looking nearly as calm as his sister. He was staring at Toothless with wide eyes. "Told you what? And what in the world is that!"

Ruffnut punched him. "You idiot, that's Hiccup's dragon! And what do you think she told me? Look at them, they're holding hands."

Tuffnut grouchily rubbed his head, but looked to the two of them and seemed to only just notice what she was talking about. He continued to stare, his jaw going slack. Hiccup would've laughed if he hadn't felt so nervous; he'd never seen either of the twins rendered speechless before. Behind him, Fishlegs was having about the same reaction.

Ruffnut turned back to the pair. "Man Hiccup, you are _some_ weirdo, you know that?" The statement was harsh, but she smiled as she said it. "Like, you're an even bigger freak than I thought. But you both are, so I guess it's okay."

Hiccup's laugh was full of relief. "I guess you're right," he agreed.

After that, they all took to examining Toothless and asking question after question. Hiccup could tell the dragon was becoming a little annoyed at all of the (literal) poking and prodding, but he kept up a calm visage and did his best to be patient. He answered all of their questions the best he could. Except for one.

"Wait a minute," Fishlegs said. "Where are his wings?"

Neither Hiccup or Toothless said anything. The other three teenagers eyed them suspiciously, sensing the tension that stemmed from the inquiry. Finally, Toothless stepped up to the challenge.

"Seeing as I could not fly in this form anyway, I felt I did not need them anymore," he explained. "It also makes putting on clothing easier."

At first Hiccup didn't think they'd buy it, but seconds following Toothless' lie, they resumed what they'd been doing before. He couldn't help but be glad that Toothless had come up with something. The matter of his partner's wings was between them, something special they now shared. He didn't exactly want to spew out the story to everyone.

"So uh.. where is Astrid anyway?" Hiccup finally asked in a small voice.

"Out flying," Ruffnut told him. "Since early this morning and she hasn't touched down once."

Hiccup could do nothing but nod. He said nothing in response, but then a thought occurred to him. "What about Snotlout?"

"No idea," Tuffnut answered this time.

"None of us have seen him in a few days," Ruffnut continued for him. "Probably because of his beef with you."

Hiccup looked at her. "Did he tell you about that?"

"Not exactly," she said, sounding a little irritated. "He ran panicking to all of us about a demon that tried to kill him, which was when Astrid had to explain about your dragon. She later got it out of him how he roughed you up a little, and she wasn't impressed. I guess the fact that she didn't throw herself into his arms didn't make him very happy, and he's been keeping to himself since."

Hiccup took this all in with a great deal of surprise, and it was only just then did he realize how much time he'd spent away from his friends. He was used to spending nearly every day with them, but the ordeal with Toothless had kept him more than a little preoccupied for the past several days, and all of this had happened without him having any idea.

"We think he's just embarrassed," Tuffnut added when Hiccup didn't respond.

"He should be," Ruffnut stated. "He's not thirteen anymore, acting like that just because he can't get Astrid to like him is beyond immature." Her tone was filled with so much disgust that Hiccup raised an eyebrow, but he didn't dare ask after it.

He and Toothless stuck around for a little while more, the focus fading slowly away from the dragon (much to his relief). All the while, Hiccup couldn't believe how well everything was going. Everyone in the village that they'd seen, even his friends, _no__one__minded_. They all thought it was really weird, but he could deal with that. The fact that nothing bad had happened made him feel foolish for being so frightened before. At one point he wondered if they weren't getting a little help from above, but he didn't question it. Good fortune was good fortune, and he was just glad as could be to have stumbled upon it.

They made their way back through the village when the afternoon sky began to turn dark with heavy clouds. Toothless let go of Hiccup's hand in favor of wrapping his arm protectively around the boy's waist as they walked uphill. Hiccup was glad for this when the wind began to blow icily against them. He didn't mind the chill though, for it was still amazing to him to be able to be close with Toothless like this outside in the open. When they reached the house, they turned to face each other.

Toothless grinned. "All that fuss for nothing."

Hiccup slapped him playfully on the shoulder and laughed. "You shut up. I have no idea when those people grew to be so calm, but they sure as hell didn't use to be like that. Besides, I was only trying to keep you safe!"

Toothless softened. "I know," he said, bringing his hands to Hiccup's shoulders. "And for that I am grateful. No matter how cooped up I was being stuck inside with you all of the time."

"Oh come on," Hiccup said. "I know it wasn't all _that_ bad. I'd say we had a pretty good time being stuck together."

They both laughed and Toothless bent down to kiss him. "I would say so as well," he said when he'd pulled away just an inch or so before kissing him again. Hiccup relished the peaceful moment. That was, until someone coughed loudly behind them. They broke apart with a start to find Stoick standing a few feet away looking rather displeased.

"Dad! I uh.. we were just.. where'd you come from?"

"The village," Stoick informed him shortly. "I saw the two of your down there earlier. It looks as though.. things went well."

Hiccup swallowed. "Er, yeah actually."

Stoick said nothing for a little while. Then, "I wanted to speak with you about.. this."

'_Oh, __here __we __go._' Hiccup thought darkly.

The older man took a long breath before he spoke. "Your nineteenth birthday is in just a few months," he said. "You know what that means."

Hiccup nodded. "The coming of age ceremony," he stated. Toothless looked interested at this information.

Stoick nodded as well. "Right, and just a year after-,"

"Is when I start.. learning to take over as chief," Hiccup interrupted. "I know." He was doing his best to sound nonchalant, but he was in fact terrified of this. He knew it was fast approaching, only a little more than a year away, but he'd been trying hard not to think about it.

"Right, well.. Hiccup I'm sure you know how much responsibility lies on your shoulders at this point in your life. You're not an adolescent anymore, this.. thing you have going on with your dragon is more serious than I think you understand."

Hiccup furrowed his brow. "I know exactly how serious it is," he argued.

"Hiccup," Stoick said looking a little lost on what to say. "You have to start thinking like an adult, and that means looking at things in the long run. Decisions you make can't just be made on a whim like they're nothing."

Hiccup didn't know how to react to this. On one hand, he was just about furious that his father had just insinuated that his and Toothless' relationship was childish and fickle, yet slightly amused at how far that was from the truth. In the end he decided not to go with his anger seeing as he didn't want to start a real argument.

"I get what you're saying, Dad. Really, I do. I even understand why you think that I'm acting like a lovesick pre-teen, but.. I don't know how else to convince you that that's not what's going on. I guess you'll just have to wait five, ten years down the road to see that I mean this. It isn't going to change."

Stoick didn't answer for a long time. Father and son just looked on at each other silently, Toothless standing ever vigil next to his partner.

At last, his father spoke. "You asked me last night to trust you, and.. I do. I just want to know if you think this is what's best for yourself."

"Of course I do," Hiccup said without a moment's hesitation. His father's demeanor softened, but his expression remained stern.

"To be honest, you will have to wait a while for my blessing," he said, addressing the both of them now. "I'm still trying to process all of this. For now though, you'll have me out of your way and I won't say another word about it."

Hiccup nodded. "Thanks, Dad," he said.

"I thank you as well," Toothless said rather unexpectedly. Stoick looked a little surprised at this, but Hiccup just smiled and took the dragon's hand in his. After a moment, his father just shook his head.

"Just don't make me regret it," he said gruffly, but Hiccup could tell he was only trying to come off as angry at this point. He suppressed a smile as his father turned and made his way back down the hill.

* * *

A week passed before Hiccup could even take notice, and things remained peaceful on Berk. Everyone was used to Toothless now. He was still an object of curiosity, but not to the extent that he had once been. And even better, the dragon fit in with Hiccup's friends as though he'd been there all along. Well, Hiccup thought, he technically had been, but it was different now. He'd been fearful that they wouldn't get along, but once again it was proved a silly thing to worry about.

There was a day when Astrid finally joined in. Normally she spent time with the twins and Fishlegs when Hiccup and Toothless weren't around, so he was more than a little surprised when she sat down at their table in the mess hall one night. The twins greeted her as though nothing had changed, but Hiccup was silent. She had kept quiet most of that night, but she seemed to have no issue that she was within the same fifty foot radius that they were. It got better over time, however. As the days went by, the more things seemed to settle back to normal. She was cheerful again and had even made eye contact with him a few times.

Snotlout however, still had not returned to the group. Hiccup saw him in the village every once in a while, doing some kind of work or chore, but he kept to himself. No one in the group said anything about him, not seeming as though they missed him at all. It gave Hiccup an odd sense of guilt that he couldn't explain seeing as how he'd been the one Snotlout had gone after for no reason. Still though, it was just weird sometimes knowing one of their usual group was just gone, and it had to do with him. He just tried not to dwell on it too much.

This morning he and Toothless had joined the group down by the dragon stalls. An interesting thing Hiccup noticed was the dragons' reaction to Toothless' new form. They usually shied away from him when he was nearby, but he didn't seem to care. He didn't think much of it though, seeing as though Toothless had always been on his own, and the only Night Fury Hiccup had ever seen around. He just hoped it didn't bother him.

When everyone took off to go flying, Hiccup and Toothless remained behind, sitting together in the grass. A few feet ahead of them, the ground cut off into a steep cliff that led straight to the ocean. The wind coming off of the sea was very cold as winter was just upon them. Sensing his shivers, Toothless wrapped an arm around his shoulders and brought him closer. Hiccup smiled.

"You know," Toothless began. "You could always choose another dragon to ride if you miss flying. I would not mind."

Hiccup stared at him, surprised at the statement. He blinked a few times, taking this in, then he turned to look ahead of him.

"The first time we flew together," Hiccup said. "It was supposed to just be like.. a test, you know? To make sure you could really fly with the tail fin I'd made you. But it ended up being something so much more. It was like nothing I'd ever felt, and it became the escape from this island and all of my problems that I never had before."

Toothless had turned to look at him, taking in the boy's words. Hiccup's gaze was held to the horizon. "And even after all of that, when things finally started turning around for me here.. being up there with you was always more than just flying. You know what I mean?"

Toothless nodded. "Yes. It was.. the two of us-,"

"As one," Hiccup finished for him. He brought his knees up and hugged them to his chest, turning to look at Toothless again. "Of course I miss it, but.. it was something I shared with you and no one else. It's gone now and I'll just have to accept that."

There was a pause, and then he smiled warmly. "I think it'll be fine, though. We have a whole life together to share new things in place of that."

Toothless' smile was immediate. He held Hiccup all the closer to him, bringing their foreheads together in a silent gesture of his happiness. "I look forward to it," he said.

They leaned away from each other and looked out ahead of them to where the dark winter clouds met the sea.

"Me too."

* * *

**First note: **"Ost min" is old-Norse for "my love". Or so google told me, so. IF IT'S WRONG MY BAD OKAY. I just thought it sounded pretty :

**SECOND: **The goddess I used in this chapter was based on a real Norse goddess, Lofn. I just didn't use her name because I didn't think it fit anywhere in the scene. Again, I got the information from wikipedia, so if it's off I apologize. It told me that she was the goddess of love and marriage, "especially when it was forbidden". So trololo, thought she'd work perfect.

**AND THIIIIRD, **more gushing from me over the fact that this is finished. I can't even begin to explain how much this story means to me, and even more so my wonderful readers who've stuck by me this entire goddamn time. I'm sorry there were so many long waits between chapters, but it means so much to me how many people enjoy this story. I just. BUH, guys, thanks so much, I can't say it enough. YOU ARE ALL THE BEST AND I LOVE YOOOUUUU. Also, just because this is done doesn't mean I'm done writing for them ;D I actually have a sequel planned for thiiiiiis lolololo, I have for a long time, and I really wanna start on that soon. I can't promise anything, but seriously, seeing as it's been almost two years since HTTYD came out and my love for it and this pairing haven't faded at all? I think you can expect something in the near future :3

Thanks for the millionth time guys, seriously. You're all amazing 3


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